All great achievers start out as individuals with a vision that ultimately impacts the realms they care about! They may not initially intend to, they have the ability to shape an entire industry or market. A relevant and stunningly successful example is how Suzi Dafnis took a leadership position and advanced The Australian Businesswomen’s Network and progressed the cause and status of business women in Australia exponentially. In our uncertain, unstable and turbulent world, we all have the power and leadership presence to tune into and harness this creative energy to make a significant difference within the realms we care about.
“Small moves, smartly made can set big things in motion.”
Many years ago, when I was involved in delivering several of the business education sessions in the Women in Business Mentoring Program, I met many visionary and outstanding women. One of which, I succinctly remember wanted to create a completely new learning and development organisation in the sales leadership niche. At the time, I thought she was a bit overly ambitious, as she had never worked in the training and development industry and had come from a sales role in one of the big software firms. She has since evolved and grown her business into an admirable national market leadership position, and unexpectedly transformed the nature and the way sales leadership training is designed and delivered in the corporate training marketplace.
You can follow the same five simple steps and set something bigger that you may have previously expected, in motion:
- Create a compelling shaping view of the future. Adopt a “what if” or possibility mindset, and spend some time in retreat and reflection and wonder how things “could be”. Then paint a vivid picture of your desired future state, it can be done as a drawing, collage or in words, it must be as imaginative, deviant and creative as possible. It needs to be compelling towards making a difference and value adding in ways that will inspire and motivate people to join you and your cause.
- Make sure that the benefits are mutual. For you to define a new shaping point of view, you will need to make clear the conditions you are trying to achieve will benefit many people beyond yourself. Make these tangible and specific, and the more explicitly you can define the types of people, who will benefit, the more these people are likely to be motivated and inspired to join you and engage in your cause.
- Make it happen, find your crowd! Take time to consider what positive actions you can take to demonstrate your conviction regarding your shaping view. How can you generate the credibility to convince powerful people to join your cause? With so many internet based options and online communities available to you, it should be easy to state your case and build followership within a wide range of media towards achieving your cause.
- Create a unique platform. In the past, we attended live events, conferences or ran Town Hall Meetings when we wanted to stimulate discussions that effected change. With today’s internet options and range of online meeting and social interaction sites, it should be much easier. The easiest way is to create a virtual gathering place, or an online group within one of the various and diverse social media platforms or meeting groups to promote your cause. The key is to be creative and helpful by trying to reduce barriers to interaction and the investment required to participate.
- Build critical mass. Whilst small groups of committed people can effect radical change, building a large support base can lend credibility to your cause. Again having a loose business and social media strategy that utilizes social software enables you to build a global community of supporters to harness their energy and support.
We live in a world where individuals increasingly have the ability to shape their operating environments and make a bigger difference at the deepest levels possible. This is one of the most exciting opportunities for effecting change, in that small moves, smartly made can set big things in motion. For more information on our programs, please contact janet@imaginenation.co.il, attend one of our complimentary webinars or go to www.imaginenation.co.il or to one of the following links: Coach for Innovators Certified Program™ or The Start-Up Game™. Join the ImagineNation Community by downloading our free e-book.
