“The vision thing”
A great leader today needs a vision of the future that is not a function of today’s reality, but that aims at creating new realities.
By Alan Stoga, President, Zemi Communications; Senior Adviser,Kissinger Associates; Chairman, Tällberg Foundation, USA
Leadership at a time when the world as we have known it seems to be changing almost faster than we can comprehend it and in ways we have never seen must, above all, be forward looking. That does not mean a leader needs the physic’s ability to conjure up images in a crystal ball. Rather, it means that a great leader today needs a vision of the future that is not a function of today’s reality, but that aims at creating a new reality. Almost by definition, such a vision must be grounded in a set of human values which themselves are not a function of time or culture, but reflect our common humanity as articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. put it, “If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values…all reality hinges on moral foundations.”
Vision with values seems an easy equation; indeed, it seems obvious. But too many organizations (and even nations) pretend to have them, but actually get up every day and simply do again what they did yesterday. Leaders measure progress by longevity; organizations celebrate success by surviving. Yet they are often going nowhere and changing nothing.
Few, of course, are as honest as Alice was in Adventures in Wonderland:
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice.
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
Twenty-first century leadership needs to be innovative, courageous, optimistic, collaborative — but also visionary and value based. Vision without values produced Hitler and Stalin. Values without vision produces stagnation. Too much is at risk today to accept either outcome.
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Alan Stoga is a strategist and entrepreneur with extensive experience in communications and public relations, corporate consulting, digital media, geopolitics, banking and government. Currently, he serves as Senior Adviser at Kissinger Associates, the international consulting firm chaired by Dr. Henry Kissinger, as well as president of Zemi Communications, L.L.C., a New York based firm that provides communication counsel.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Stoga founded a private equity firm; was managing director of Kissinger Associates; served as chief economist for the Bipartisan National Commission on Central America, created by President Reagan; established and managed the country risk management activities for the First National Bank of Chicago; and served as an international economist in the U.S. Treasury (1975–77).
Mr. Stoga is Chairman of the board of the Tällberg Foundation (based in Sweden), Vice Chairman of the boards of the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas, and Secretary of the board of the Tinker Foundation. He has also served as Secretary of the multimedia awards jury for World Press Photo, based in Amsterdam. Mr. Stoga is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has economics and international relations degrees from Michigan State and Yale University, respectively.
