Book Recommendations
from Bret L. Simmons

From Bret's review: "Despite its flaws, it is a good book. It will make the list of optional readings for my MBA class this fall because I think it will have an impact on the students that read it. The book is very well written with excellent organization and a very conversational style. The best thing about the book is the numerous excellent examples Liz gives to support her points, coming from her years of experience as a top executive and consultant."

Order now from Amazon!

From Bret's review: "In this book, Nayar tells the story of how he transformed an already successful company, HCLT, into one of the fastest growing IT service partners in the world. The personal story Nayar shares is compelling, insightful, and at times funny and brutally honest. Have your highlighter handy when you read this because it is packed full of wisdom and quotable passages."

Order now from Amazon!

ACT Change: Develop A Vision For The Common Good

December 16, 2009 by Bret L. Simmons · Filed under: Leadership, Purpose, Video

The next principle of Advance Change Theory (ACT) is to develop a vision for the common good. Please do NOT miss the fact that this is the FIFTH principle in this system of change – not the first. Too many treatments of leadership treat vision as synonymous with leadership. Frankly, I think the whole “vision thing” is overrated.

You are not ready to develop a vision for the common good unless and until you:

1. Put aside self-interest and begin to make the shared purpose your top priority

2. Confront the gaps in your personal integrity and the self-deception that hides your hypocrisy

3. Clarify your values and begin to align your behavior with those values

4. Free yourself from the system of external sanctions and stop worry about what others say and think about you.

If you don’t go through these first four steps, the vision you develop will most likely be for YOUR good and the good of those that contribute to your self-deception by telling you what they think you want to hear, not what you need to know.

A vision for the common good is critical because you are going to ask people to take risks and make painful changes. They will be willing to do that to the extent they understand how the vision advances the shared purpose, why it matters so much right now, and how they can help make a real difference.

Now that you have a vision for the common good, it’s time to really shake things up. Stay tuned!

Do your people ever tell you no?

The Stepford Organization

The five practices of exemplary leadership: Guest post by Angie Chaplin

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

You should follow me on twitter here.

Tags: ACT change, Change, values, vision
Posted in Leadership, Purpose, Video

2 Responses to “ACT Change: Develop A Vision For The Common Good”

Tanveer Naseer says:

December 16, 2009 at 2:47 pm

Bret,

This has been a very enjoyable series on ACT and I think this latest one about leadership and vision is particularly good. It’s a great reminder of what we choose as our starting point plays a big role on where we’ll end up.

Looking forward to the upcoming parts in this informative series.

[Reply]
Bret L. Simmons Reply:
December 16th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Thanks, Tanveer! I’ve been teaching this in class for year, but doing the series has clarified my own thinking and made it even more beneficial for me. Stay tuned! Bret

[Reply]