Harvard Business Review Leader's Handbook

1.

Building a Unifying Vision

A leader’s role is to raise people’s aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.

—David Gergen

Exceptional organizations have an exciting, clear, and simple vision—a vision that honors and reinforces the core purpose of the organization, but also creates a picture of where the organization is heading and what it aspires to accomplish in the future. Consider, for example, DuPont’s vision, “to be the world’s most dynamic science company, creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere”; or Facebook’s, “to give people ...