FOLLOW THE LEADERA change agent is a visionary and a dreamer, but not a starry-eyed
over-optimist...The change agent acts not just out of a conviction that
the message is right, but that it is essential, that the very future hangs
upon the thread of today’s decision.^3If there is no over-arching, all-consuming vision, a leader will never
become an agent of change in his world. On the contrary, rather than
change his environment, he will be changed by it. Instead of reforming
and transforming his environment, he will be an agent of conformity.
Principle:
“Leadership feeds on the vision of something great.”^4
(Richard Phillips)Either consciously or unconsciously, the values of their vision guide
everything a proactive leader does. Their moral and spiritual values become
the grid through which they process everything else that comes their
way in life. Their values become the touchstone by which everything else
is tested. Whether it is opportunities...change...problems...setbacks...
disappointments...or defeats – effective leaders remain true to the values
of their vision. Richard Phillips concludes:
Visionary leadership is not neutral, nor even objective. It is
passionately committed to particular principles and actions that
themselves embody the vision.^5Stephen Covey emphasizes this same principle about leaders as change
agents because of their value-driven orientation:
The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of
the proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by
circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people
are driven by values – carefully thought about, selected and internalized
values...Proactive people are still influenced by external stimuli,
whether physical, social, or psychological. But their response to the
stimuli, conscious or unconscious, is a value-based choice or response.^6Leaders do not spend much of their lives reacting to the activities of
others around them. Rather than being conformers – they are reformers
and transformers. History shows that it has always been some leader who