144 Strategic Leadership
As the process of strategic leadership gains momentum, people feel a genuine
sense of empowerment and pride, and many new leaders step forward to meet
their responsibilities. They lead themselves and others at the same time (cf. Ganz
2005; Messick 2005; Tyler 2005).
Developing a Strategic Vision
We have seen something of the content and the deep significance of a vision for
the strategy process as a form of collaborative leadership. As with mission, we must
ask not only what a vision is, but also how it is created intentionally in a strategy
process. Although there are no recipes, there are systematic practices and insights
to be used as circumstances suggest and as the dynamics of a campus indicate.
As we have seen, similar to the development of purpose, the process of
developing a vision is rooted in the institution’s story and identity. In many ways,
vision is the story told anew for the future, now as a narrative of aspiration. This
may mean that the story is transformed through change and new ambitions, that
it is reinterpreted and enlarged, and some chapters of it left behind. Yet in the
examples we have seen, aspirations for the future draw forth the commanding
master values and images of the past. They legitimize the vision in the eyes of the
community and make it intelligible. As standards, values and images are open
to new content. They are orientations to choice, not the changing content of
choice. Effective leaders are always circumspect about which buildings, programs,
or policies will have to be replaced to fulfill a vision because they may carry
unexpected meanings in the institution’s legacy. But some will have to go, and,
if so, their loss can be regretted as a necessary sacrifice to a larger good and an
authentic vision.
Illustrations
Whereas mission statements may require several paragraphs, visions can usu-
ally be stated in several lines, although their accompanying explanations can run
many pages. To bring some concreteness to our discussion, it will be helpful to
examine a handful of statements from a diverse group of institutions as they appear
in mission statements, strategic plans, accreditation self-studies, and official pub-
lications. With the statements before us, we can analyze some of their patterns
and parallels to shed light on their development.
The University of Connecticut will be perceived and acknowledged as the out-
standing public university in the nation—a world class university (2000).
Duke University aspire[s] to become fully as good, over the next twenty years, as
any of the leading private research universities in the country, with comparable
breadth and depth, and deserved reputation for excellence in teaching, research,
and wide-ranging contributions to society (2001).
Princeton University strives to be both one of the leading research universities and
the most outstanding undergraduate college in the world (2000).