Leadership as vision

Contends that in addition to the role of leadership as a fundamental organizational competence, leadership may be defined in terms of vision and shared values. Vision is conceptualized in holistic terms. Defines vision as an imagined or perceived but consistent pattern of communal possibilities to which others can be drawn, and whose values they will wish to share. Explains visionary leadership and analyses implementation within the context of social architecture and trust. Describes Collins and Porras’ (1996) analysis of the visionary company. Concludes with a summary of Hickman’s (1992) analysis of the relationship between the visionary capacity of the leader, and the practical implementation approach of the manager, as the two opposite ends of a spectrum. Concludes that a basic holistic objective should be to blend strong visionary leadership with effective management into one integrated whole, in which the strengths of both combine synergistically to the advantage of the enterprise.