The Vision Driven Leader Question 5

• Envisioning and articulating the future are essential leadership skills
• Malala Yousafzai was born in Mingora, Pakistan, in the Swat Valley
• Her father, a teacher, founded a small private school for girls, aiming to provide her with equal educational opportunities as boys
• When Malala was eleven, the Taliban seized control of the Swat Valley
• The Taliban banned music, television, and forced women into burqas and out of schools to stop Western influences
• They also destroyed over 100 girls’ schools and publicly executed policemen to assert their authority
• Malala, with her family's support, envisioned a future where education was accessible to all
• Malala partnered with journalists to expose the horrors of life under the Taliban, despite the risks involved
• Her bravery motivated her country and the world toward a future of hope, defying the Taliban's oppression
• Malala delivered a speech entitled “How Dare the Taliban Take Away My Basic Right to Education?” at a local press club
• The Pakistan government awarded her the National Peace Prize
• Malala stated, “Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.”
• A masked gunman shot Malala in the head and neck, acting on orders from a cleric, for speaking out against the Taliban
• After recovering, Malala decided to continue her fight for girls' education
• She founded the Malala Fund to promote her vision of accessible education for every girl around the world and received the Nobel Peace Prize

Why Inspiration Is Key

• Malala's vision inspired global change and investments in education
• Angelina Jolie donated $200,000 to support girls' education in Malala's hometown
• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation granted the Malala Fund $4 million in 2016 to promote secondary education for girls.
• In 2018, Apple partnered with the Malala Fund to educate over 100,000 girls by providing technology and curriculum assistance
• The Malala Fund also provided education for over 1,200 children in Sierra Leone when schools closed due to Ebola
• An effective vision must inspire action and engagement
• A Vision Script should ignite passion and creativity to attract talent and customer buy-in
• A vision that lacks inspiration is likely to fail
• Four characteristics of an inspiring vision:
  • Focuses on what isn’t, not what is
  • Exponential, not incremental
  • Risky, not stupid
  • Focused on what, not how
• A vision should surpass the present to prompt action toward the future

What Isn’t, Not What Is

• Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick founded Uber by focusing on "what isn't" in the taxi industry
• Uber does not own any cars or employ any drivers
• Garrett and Travis conceived an app-based ridesharing service to connect customers directly with rides
• The app would handle fares, payments, and receipts
• Uber's innovative vision transformed the traditional taxi model
• Drivers work for themselves, and use a digital map with customer pickup and routing for the quickest path to the destination
• Uber is the world's largest ground transportation company without owning cars
• Uber's vision inspired millions of customers and drivers, providing flexible business opportunities
• Uber enjoys almost 70 percent of the US market share and is valued at $72 billion

Exponential, Not Incremental

• Steve Jobs introduced the first cell phone without a keyboard or stylus on January 9, 2007
• The iPhone was a revolutionary and magical product
• Jobs replaced physical keys with virtual keys on a bigger screen
• Critics doubted the lack of a physical keyboard
• Apple celebrated selling over one billion phones by July 2016
• Customers now regard a physical keyboard as a massive step backwards

Risky, Not Stupid

• Michael Hyatt & Co. initially focused on digital products
• The company created a physical paper planner, the Full Focus Planner
• The planner combined their goal-achievement system (Best Year Ever) and productivity methodology (Free to Focus)
• Combining them seemed like a no-brainer
• Doubters questioned the relevance of a paper planner in the 21st century
• The company sold 100,000 copies in the first year
• A risky vision makes you uncomfortable
• A stupid decision will likely fail, lacks stakeholder alignment, and imperils your mission
• Anything big and inspiring will be a bit risky, but it shouldn’t be stupid

What, Not How

• Vision focuses on the desired future, not the path to get there
• Vision must precede strategy
• A clear vision will lead to the right strategy
• A vision should inspire both the leader and the team
• Focusing on an inspiring "what" helps people find their "why."
• Focusing first on “how” stops people from believing in a superior tomorrow
• Focusing first on “how” causes low expectations
• The Wright brothers envisioned a "flying machine," overcoming tremendous obstacles and resource limitations to revolutionize aviation history
• They were inspired by their vision of human flight, and figuring out how was secondary
• In almost every settled opinion, there’s just enough room for error, ignorance, and insufficient analysis that someone with fresh ideas can shake up the status quo and take us from now to next

Changing the Script

• Casting a vision for something wildly better is important
• Vision is key to leading people beyond business as usual
• The current script might involve incremental gains, cost-of-living raises, the occasional promotion, and decent benefits, but isn’t inspiring enough
• People are motivated by creating real transformation in the world
• The vision-driven leader must envision that transformation and enroll others to bring it about
• Your Vision Script changes the tired, discouraging story so many people are living
• Ensure that your Vision Script is inspiring, practical, and connected to strategy