It's important to have a compelling vision and a comprehensive plan. Positive leadership—conveying the idea that there is always a way forward—is so important because that is what you are here for—to figure out how to move the organization forward.
—Alan Mulally
Positive leadership is all about seeing and creating a brighter and better future. It's about inventing, innovating, creating, building, improving, and transforming education, healthcare, business, government, technology, farming, design, communities, cities, transportation, and every aspect of our lives and the world we live in. Some scoff when leaders share bold ideas, imaginative goals, and seemingly impossible dreams, but ideas, imagination, and dreams are the fabric positive leaders weave together to create the future and change the world.
At one time, Star Wars was just an idea in the mind of George Lucas, but now the Force is as strong as ever. J.K. Rowling had a vision of Harry Potter and now he's an iconic part of our society—and as real as a roller-coaster in Universal Studios. John F. Kennedy had a vision for sending a man to the moon. Ronald Reagan saw the Berlin Wall come down before it crumbled. Steve Jobs imagined the iPod and iPhone long before the world was addicted to them. Abraham Lincoln envisioned a united America. Martin Luther King, Jr., had a dream about equality. George Washington had thoughts of revolution and freedom before fighting for independence.
A positive leader sees what's possible and then takes the next steps to rally and unite people to create it. Every invention, project, creation, and transformation starts with an idea, an imagination, and a vision of what's possible. History shows us that if you can see it, you can create it. If you have a vision, then you also have the power to make it happen. Positive leaders tap into the power of a vision and find a way forward. But in order to rally people to follow you, you must be able to articulate and communicate your vision in a simple, clear, bold, and compelling way. Whether it's Ford's One Ford, IBM's Let's Build a Smarter Planet, GM's Design, build and sell the world's best vehicles, Feeding America's A hunger-free America, Alzheimer's Association's a world without Alzheimer's, or Fort Bend Independent School District's vision to inspire and equip students to create a future beyond what students can imagine, a vision serves as a rallying cry that unites and ignites people. It's not meant to be a novel as long as War and Peace or a paragraph filled with buzzwords and jargon that no one understands, remembers, or cares about. It's meant to be simple, memorable, compelling, and exciting. Remember, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have a dream.” He didn't say,”I have a strategic plan that I think might work.”
Doug Conant, the former CEO of Campbell Soup, told me the most important thing he did when he became the leader of the company was to share the vision. He said he shared it before every meeting. Whether the meeting was just a few people or hundreds gathered for a sales meeting, he shared the vision: To build the world's most extraordinary food company by nourishing people's lives everywhere, every day. He told me that he kept sharing and reinforcing the vision in order to align everyone in the company and point them in the right direction. He didn't stop saying it once he had steered the company away from the brink of bankruptcy and into profitability. He kept sharing the vision over and over again, letting everyone know where they were going and why they were going there.
The vision a positive leader creates and shares serves as a North Star that points and moves everyone in an organization in the right direction. The leader must continually point to this North Star and remind everyone that this is where we are going. Yes, we were here yesterday. Yes, this is what happened in the past. But this is where we are going now. We don't have a perfect set of plans because the world is always changing, but we do have a North Star that will guide us. We don't have a perfect road map, but we have a path forward and we have each other. Let's keep our eyes on the North Star and keep moving forward.
Sharing a vision and a North Star is important because everyone needs one. Everyone needs something to hope for and work toward. As humans, we have an innate desire to be great and do something great. We have a longing to improve and create a brighter and better future and, yet, so often fear holds us back. Stress weakens us. Obstacles test our resolve. Adversity makes us want to give up. A leader who shares a vision and a way forward is a dealer in hope, a believer in the impossible, a champion of what's possible, and a coach who guides and inspires a team to keep improving, and keep moving forward.
As a positive leader you will want to carry a telescope and a microscope with you on your journey. The telescope helps you and your team keep your eyes on your vision, North Star, and big picture. The microscope helps you zoom-focus on the things you must do in the short term to realize the vision in your telescope. If you have only a telescope, then you'll be thinking about your vision all the time and dreaming about the future but not taking the necessary steps to realize it. If you have only a microscope, then you'll be working hard every day but set-backs and challenges will likely frustrate and discourage you because you'll lose sight of the big picture. You need to frequently pull out your telescope to remind yourself and your team where you are going, and you'll need to look through your microscope daily in order to focus on what matters most and follow through on your commitments. Together they will help you take your team and organization where you want to go.
A simple exercise I like to do with leaders at the end of my talks is to have them each write down their big-picture vision for their team and a zoom-focused action they will focus on in order to be a better leader. As a leader, you can do this simple exercise with the members of your team and organization. Simply have each person identify his or her vision and one action they will commit to in order to achieve it.
I've worked with Dabo Swinney and Clemson football for the past five years. A few years ago, Dabo told me that the day after he was named the interim head coach of the team, midway through the 2008 season, he had an early-morning meeting with the board of trustees. He hadn't slept much the night before and had a lot on his mind. During the meeting, one of the trustees said his vision was that Clemson would create a program that was like other schools that had great academics and great football. Dabo was tired and wanted to say something but he kept telling himself, “Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it.” In the end, he couldn't help himself. He responded to the trustee and said, “Sir, I don't mean this disrespectfully but that's not my vision at all. My vision is much bigger than that. My vision is that we will create a program where all the football programs you mentioned want to be like us. That's my vision.”
At the time, they most likely thought Dabo was just filled with a lot of positive words, but he had both a telescope and microscope with him on his journey. In 2011, he crystallized his philosophy that best would be the Clemson standard. Everything they did on and off the field was about excellence and being their best. Between 2011 and the writing of this book, Clemson has won at least 10 games every year, made it to the College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship game two years in a row, and won it this year. More importantly, in a Wall Street Journal article ranking all the football programs by success on the field and in the classroom, only Clemson and Stanford were featured in the top-right quadrant of the graph, which means they are the two schools with the highest achievement combining both academic and football success. When Dabo showed me the article and the graph, he said it was what he was most proud of. It was his vision from the moment he took the job, and every day he and his coaches and team worked to realize it.
A funny story about this journey is that when Dabo became the head coach, he asked his athletic director at the time for a television for his office to watch game and practice footage. The athletic director told him it wasn't in his budget and they couldn't buy him one. So Dabo went to the store and, with his own money, bought a television, which he still uses to this day. Sure the television screens are much more high tech than they were in 2008, but this television is special to him. While wrapping his arms around it in a joking way, he told me that if he ever leaves Clemson, he's taking that TV with him. Fast forward to 2017: Clemson just built a $55 million football facility with the latest training and recovery technology, nap rooms, a bowling alley, swimming pool, and all the televisions Dabo wants. The finest college football facility in the world is a testament to the power of one person's vision.
Dabo, like most big-time college coaches, had a vision of winning a national championship. When I arrived during training camp to speak to the team before the 2015 season, Dabo gave me a t-shirt that said “Dream the Dream” on the front and “15 for 15, January 11, 2016” on the back. I asked him what that meant. He said it was a vision he had when he woke up from a dream. “I had a dream we were going to play in the national championship on January 11 and go for our 15th straight win of the season. The vision is to win all 15 games we play, hence 15 for 15.” At the time, I wondered who could be bold enough to put that on a shirt. By the end of the season, I realized the same guy who was bold enough to make those t-shirts was also bold enough to say that he would have a pizza party at the Clemson football stadium (nicknamed Death Valley) if the team made it to the college football playoffs. Well, they made it and 30,000 people showed up for the pizza party. At the time, when Dabo said they would have a pizza party, he had no idea how many would show up or how he would feed everyone. But like in the movie Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will come. Pizza restaurants from across the state came together to provide all the pizza and it was one amazing party.
If you watched the 2015 National Championship, you know that Clemson lost to Alabama and failed to make Dabo's dream a reality. But after the game I sat in the locker room and watched an incredible display of positive leadership that I will never forget. Dabo told the team that he was so proud of them and that they just didn't make enough plays to beat a team as good as Alabama. He went on to praise his team and all they had accomplished and thanked the seniors for the legacy of excellence they had left. Then he began talking about the coming year and how excited he was for the future. He shared the vision for the returning players and said, “We will be coming back next year.” For the next few minutes he pulled out his telescope and shared what the future looked like and all that they were going to do. I was blown away. Here, he and his team had just lost the National Championship, and Dabo was already inspiring his team with a vision for the future. In that moment he taught me that positive leaders, despite the circumstances, obstacles, and set-backs, keep the vision alive and continue to share it to inspire others. Dabo kept the vision alive all season and Clemson made it back to the 2016 National Championship to play Alabama again, but this time they won with a dramatic touchdown with one second left on the clock. Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime moment, a vision realized, a dream achieved!
To understand the importance of keeping your vision alive, let's look at marathon runners. The fewest number of people quit a marathon in the first mile. And the second fewest runners quit in the last mile. I would expect a lot to quit in the last mile because, by that point, they have been running the longest and should be the most physically tired. But they don't quit because they are so close to the finish line. They don't quit because they can see the end in sight. They have a vision of where they are going and they keep running towards it. It shows the power of the mind and vision. The body should give up but it doesn't because the mind sees the finish line. The most people quit a marathon in the 20th mile. That is where they are physically tired and mentally drained. They have run far and still have a long way to go. They lose their vision and so they give up. When I speak to companies, schools, and organizations, I encourage the participants to write down when they experience their 20th mile. We all have a 20th mile. Then, I encourage them to write down the words “Keep your vision alive” because if you keep your vision alive, you won't stop. You won't give up. Like Dabo you'll keep moving forward and inspiring your team along the way.
We've been talking about a lot of concepts and ideas, but my goal with this book is not to just share principles and stories and philosophy, but also practical ideas you can implement. In this spirit, one of the simple ways to transform ideas and visions into results is to have a conversation with the people you lead. You may be the leader of 150 people, 1,500 people, or 15,000 people, but for the purpose of this exercise you will do this with your direct reports, and then each person you lead will do this with their direct reports and so on and so on throughout the team and organization. During each conversation, you share the vision and you ask each person to identify what it means to him or her. For the vision to come to life, it must have meaning to us individually. For example, before I spoke to the leaders of Palmetto Health in South Carolina, I interviewed a bunch of people who worked in their hospitals and asked them the vision and what it meant to them. Amazingly, each person was able to recite the vision and tell me specifically how it resonated on an individual level.
After the people on your team identify what the vision means to them, ask them what their personal vision is and how it can help contribute to the bigger vision of the organization. Then ask them how you can help them on their journey. What do they need from you to be their best? Finally, ask them how they would like you to hold them accountable. If you have an open and honest conversation like this with each person you lead and continue to communicate and discuss their personal and organizational visions throughout the year, you'll see the power of a vision come to life. When people know how they are contributing to a bigger vision and have a bigger purpose at work—and feel like their manager-leader-coach genuinely cares about them—the research shows that engagement soars. We will talk more about this later in the book, but for now consider this a great way to share, discuss, and bring the vision to life, one person at a time.
I love learning and talking about the power of a vision because it's a vision that has driven me to overcome all the obstacles I have faced to do the work I do now. In 2005 I was on a plane headed to a speaking engagement in Portland, Oregon. I was energized about speaking and thinking about how much the three restaurant franchises I owned were draining me. While reading a magazine, I came across an article that was titled “How to Know When to Sell Your Business,” and I thought that maybe it was time to sell the restaurants. On my way home, I read a completely different magazine and came across an article titled “How to Value Your Business When Selling.” I didn't think it was a coincidence, so when I walked in the door of my house, I told my wife it was time to sell the restaurants. The signs were clear. I was going to do what I loved and focus 100 percent of my time and energy on writing and speaking. My wife wasn't as excited and optimistic. She asked what would happen if it didn't work out. I was only doing a few speaking engagements a month, didn't have a best-selling book, and we certainly weren't going to get rich from selling the restaurants. We could survive a year or two, but if writing and speaking didn't work out, then what?!?! I told her there were no other options. Somehow, some way, it was going to work out. And it was then that my vision was born. I was going to inspire and empower as many people as possible, one person at a time. Six months after selling the restaurants, I was walking and praying because the writing and speaking weren't going well and I was filled with fear and doubt. That's when the idea for The Energy Bus came to me. When I returned home I ran upstairs to my home office and started writing. Three and a half weeks later I had a manuscript that I sent out, which lead to over 30 rejection letters from publishers. The agent I had found told me I should consider giving up on finding a publisher and just self-publish. In those days self-publishing wasn't mainstream like it is now, so that route felt like a letdown.
I thought about giving up, but I couldn't. I had a vision and I kept thinking about it. A few weeks later while sitting in a Barnes and Noble and dreaming about my own book being on the shelf, I saw several books published by John Wiley and Sons and realized we hadn't sent my manuscript to them yet. I asked the agent to send it to them, which she did, and it landed on the desk of Shannon Vargo. Shannon had only been on the job for a few months but she read the manuscript and decided she wanted to publish it. It turns out she had a best friend with a husband named George, the name of the main character, and she also liked the story. I remember getting the call that they were going to publish it. It was truly one of the best moments of my life. The publisher said they wouldn't give me a lot of money for an advance but they could publish it in six months. I was more than excited because I didn't care about the money. I just wanted this book out there so I could live and share my vision.
When the book came out it was surprisingly a huge hit in South Korea. It was a top-ten best seller there, but not one bookstore in the United States would carry it. My vision was being tested. I decided to go on a 28-city tour to share the message about the book and, hopefully, inspire and empower as many people as possible, one person at a time. I mapped out a plan for the tour, drove cross country, and gradually made my way back to Florida, one city at a time. My friend Daniel Decker, who is still my business partner, called up local radio and television stations a few days before I arrived in each city and tried to book me on their shows. We planned a book signing or a talk at a local library or coffee shop in each city. We honestly didn't have an efficient and effective plan, but we did have a lot of hustle and grit. We said I was internationally known, which was true since I was a best seller in South Korea, and, fortunately, I was able to get on a bunch of local television and radio shows, but only a few people showed up to my events. We had five people in one city. Ten people in another city. We had a big crowd of 20 to 30 people in a few cities, and the biggest turnout was about 100 people in Des Moines, Iowa. I believe they showed up because they thought Jeff Gordon, the NASCAR driver, was coming.
The tour wasn't easy. I had two young children at home with my wife and I missed them a lot. I drove thousands of miles through the desert and cornfields and mountains, and got sick along the way in Kansas and Nebraska. Thankfully, Jim Van Allan, my college intern at the time, who is now a great trainer, speaker, and workshop leader for my company, was able to drive The Energy Bus and me to a few cities while I slept and recovered. I gave everything I had on that tour and focused on inspiring and empowering anyone who came to see me. The interesting thing was that I met a school principal in one city and that lead to a speaking engagement at a school. I met a businessman and that lead to a speaking engagement at a company. I met a coach and that lead me to speak to my first pro sports team. I didn't have a great plan, but my vision kept me going and it lead to many of the great relationships I have to this day. Ten years later, my vision still keeps me going. It's the reason why I wrote this book, created Positive University, and started The Energy Bus for Schools program, where our mission is to transform the negativity prevalent in education to create positive school cultures and develop positive leaders (both adults and students). I've experienced the power of a vision in my own life and I know what is possible when you see it and act on it. I don't tell you my story so you'll be impressed with me. I tell it so you'll look inside yourself and look out into the world and know that you possess the greatest power in the universe: the power to see a positive future and create it.