Inspired Leadership

Chapter 6Begin at the End

To build a vision of success, the best place to start is at the end.

In the previous section, we discussed the commitment of some wonderful groups of talented people at companies like Porsche and Fairline, who had extraordinary potential. But, as in many cases, the businesses had lost sight of where they were going, or why. At BMW, a successful business was missing the opportunity to create something remarkable because everyone, through no fault of their own, was focusing only on doing the next thing as well as they could.

In the first part of the book we looked at how you, as an inspiring leader, can dream a future, and how you can show everyone that they can commit to the same future, and how their commitment is vital to making that dream a reality. We saw how people everywhere can do extraordinary things when they commit to these goals and overcome their fear of flying. In this chapter, we look in more detail at how you align that commitment to the right goal.

At the end, you will have a clear idea of how you and your team can interrogate the business until it confesses its strengths and weaknesses. The honesty in this process of evaluation allows you to discover what success could look like for you. It's a vital part of the planning process, which we will cover next, and it is also essential to connect your inspiration to a real-life goal. When ...