The Blueprint

Step 1ENVISION: The Power of Intention and Purpose

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”

—John F. Kennedy, 35th US President

The first step in the Blueprint is to Envision your leadership future, to reach high and set an anchoring intention for your journey. To prepare for the exercises you will complete in service to this step, it’s helpful to understand the power of Intention.

At the ConantLeadership Boot Camp, an intimate leadership training program that I teach to high-potential leaders from every imaginable sector, I guide participants through a condensed version of The Blueprint. In two days, they complete a lot of reflection exercises (many of the same you will complete in this book), they identify their leadership purpose, they delve into their values and beliefs, and they design a working draft of their personal leadership model. Then, they plan a reentry strategy to help them put their Foundation to work in their organization.

The very first lesson I impart to these leaders? I teach them about the all-important difference between intentional leadership and incidental – or what I call “seat-of-the-pants” – leadership.

To experience success on this journey, it is essential to understand these two mindsets. Most leaders operate with a mix of both mindsets; in a typical week, you have to operate on both the intentional and the incidental ...