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Leading with Vision: The Leader's Blueprint for Creating a Compelling Vision and Engaging the Workforce
What does it mean to lead with vision?
From LinkedIn Learning Expert, Bonnie Hagemann comes the first book devoted entirely to vision as a key leadership principle.
Hagemann and her co-authors delve deeply into the notion that a compelling vision that motivates and inspires is a differentiator for organizations that want to hire and retain talent, be more competitive, and thrive in uncertain times. But a compelling vision on its own is not enough, which is why the authors, sought-after leadership development experts globally, provide readers with detailed analysis of the essential things leaders must do to effectively engage the workforce around that embody courage, forge clarity, build connectedness, and shape culture.
Leading with Vision draws on quantitative data from the authors' research of over 400 companies supplemented with real-world examples from thoughtful leaders who exemplify the core principles of leading with vision in established companies, Olukai, Bumble Bee, Coresystems, Jimbo's, Bunge, and more. The book also includes an actionable blueprint developed by the authors that leaders and their organizations can implement on day one of their journey.
From LinkedIn Learning Expert, Bonnie Hagemann comes the first book devoted entirely to vision as a key leadership principle.
Hagemann and her co-authors delve deeply into the notion that a compelling vision that motivates and inspires is a differentiator for organizations that want to hire and retain talent, be more competitive, and thrive in uncertain times. But a compelling vision on its own is not enough, which is why the authors, sought-after leadership development experts globally, provide readers with detailed analysis of the essential things leaders must do to effectively engage the workforce around that embody courage, forge clarity, build connectedness, and shape culture.
Leading with Vision draws on quantitative data from the authors' research of over 400 companies supplemented with real-world examples from thoughtful leaders who exemplify the core principles of leading with vision in established companies, Olukai, Bumble Bee, Coresystems, Jimbo's, Bunge, and more. The book also includes an actionable blueprint developed by the authors that leaders and their organizations can implement on day one of their journey.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published May 16, 2017
35 people are currently reading
111 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 2, 2022
Good case studies. A little dense at chimes. Good summaries at the end of the chapters.
July 24, 2018
It's one thing to "enjoy" a book, it's quite another to "engage" with it. I engaged with Hagemann, Vetter, and Maketa's Leading With Vision: The Leader's Blueprint for Creating a Compelling Vision and Engaging the Workforce. As a vision practitioner and professor, I thought this book was fantastic on so many levels: research, examples, theory, and practice.
As to my own leadership, Leading With Vision made me pause, reflect, and reorient my thinking time and again. I interact with my books, so highlighting, underlining, margin notes, and circling are the norm for me. That said, I outdid myself -- ink flows -- a testimony to all the implications/applications for my context. Leading With Vision is proving to be the book that is most impacting my leadership in this season.
As to the classroom, Leading With Vision is "research-strong" without being "research-boring." The authors stated: "we hope it feels more like we are sitting around the kitchen table together than sitting in a classroom" (xix). It did. My experience is that most students would trade those seats any day.
Read the book. Study the book. Learn from the book. I sure did. Leading With Vision delivers on its promise to explain what it means -- in practice -- to lead, inspire, and engage people with a vision and purpose while exploring the qualities one needs to succeed. Obviously, this is not the be all end all when it comes to vision, but it is a solid text for anyone who wants to get better at leading with vision.
There are so many reasons to read Leading With Vision, here are five:
1. Takeaways: The authors conclude each chapter with key takeaways; at times summary statements, at times application questions/exercises to ponder. Very helpful.
2. VUCA: The authors re-introduce this acronym for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous, then demonstrate how great vision addresses and overcomes the challenges of a VUCA environment.
3. Gen Y: The authors made a compelling case for necessity of assessing and addressing millennial in the workforce, both the Why and the How. Excellent.
4. Communication: The authors provide excellent insights into communication in general and communicating vision in particular. This is "doable stuff."
5. Blueprint: The Authors deliver on "The Leader's Blueprint" part of creating a compelling vision and engaging the workforce, though I felt the latter was stronger than the former.
As to my own leadership, Leading With Vision made me pause, reflect, and reorient my thinking time and again. I interact with my books, so highlighting, underlining, margin notes, and circling are the norm for me. That said, I outdid myself -- ink flows -- a testimony to all the implications/applications for my context. Leading With Vision is proving to be the book that is most impacting my leadership in this season.
As to the classroom, Leading With Vision is "research-strong" without being "research-boring." The authors stated: "we hope it feels more like we are sitting around the kitchen table together than sitting in a classroom" (xix). It did. My experience is that most students would trade those seats any day.
Read the book. Study the book. Learn from the book. I sure did. Leading With Vision delivers on its promise to explain what it means -- in practice -- to lead, inspire, and engage people with a vision and purpose while exploring the qualities one needs to succeed. Obviously, this is not the be all end all when it comes to vision, but it is a solid text for anyone who wants to get better at leading with vision.
There are so many reasons to read Leading With Vision, here are five:
1. Takeaways: The authors conclude each chapter with key takeaways; at times summary statements, at times application questions/exercises to ponder. Very helpful.
2. VUCA: The authors re-introduce this acronym for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous, then demonstrate how great vision addresses and overcomes the challenges of a VUCA environment.
3. Gen Y: The authors made a compelling case for necessity of assessing and addressing millennial in the workforce, both the Why and the How. Excellent.
4. Communication: The authors provide excellent insights into communication in general and communicating vision in particular. This is "doable stuff."
5. Blueprint: The Authors deliver on "The Leader's Blueprint" part of creating a compelling vision and engaging the workforce, though I felt the latter was stronger than the former.
July 30, 2023
3.5 stars. A decent book that I read for my first MBA class. If only I could find employment where I take the stairs two steps at a time.
Notes:
The best way to differentiate yourself from the competition is through good customer service. Companies can always match price and create the same product. Most companies put customer service dead last.
A number is not a vision. So when companies, churches, organizations create a "vision" and there are numbers in it then that is not what they are trying to push.
I think a big problem that these analysts don't understand about a visionit is they need to change the stakeholders mindset of focusing on numbers and being driven by profit. It's not enough that bosses and CEOs create a good vision for employees, stakeholders and the Board need to hop on board too.
75% of the workforce will be Gen Y in 2025. That seems....ambitious and not real at all.
Notes:
The best way to differentiate yourself from the competition is through good customer service. Companies can always match price and create the same product. Most companies put customer service dead last.
A number is not a vision. So when companies, churches, organizations create a "vision" and there are numbers in it then that is not what they are trying to push.
I think a big problem that these analysts don't understand about a visionit is they need to change the stakeholders mindset of focusing on numbers and being driven by profit. It's not enough that bosses and CEOs create a good vision for employees, stakeholders and the Board need to hop on board too.
75% of the workforce will be Gen Y in 2025. That seems....ambitious and not real at all.
September 5, 2017
Steer Clear
Academics and entrepreneurship rarely mix and this is a great example. Weak data supporting their position and nearly all the value coming through the numerous interviews. This book provided little clarity on how to write a vision and veered off in multiple directions in an effort to pad the page count. I was able to pull a couple actionable items - only reason this is not a single star.
Academics and entrepreneurship rarely mix and this is a great example. Weak data supporting their position and nearly all the value coming through the numerous interviews. This book provided little clarity on how to write a vision and veered off in multiple directions in an effort to pad the page count. I was able to pull a couple actionable items - only reason this is not a single star.
May 5, 2020
I might be reading too many business books recently because this one felt like many of the others I have finished. It is not bad, just didn't really make me want to do much different.
There are plenty of good ideas in here. I liked the section on story telling for example, but for the most part it just feels like I've read this book before.
An easy read that didn't take much time, so not a bad investment. Just not a 5 star read for me.
There are plenty of good ideas in here. I liked the section on story telling for example, but for the most part it just feels like I've read this book before.
An easy read that didn't take much time, so not a bad investment. Just not a 5 star read for me.
December 11, 2017
A textbook summary of leadership, and therefore simple to follow and useful for reviewing strategy. Examples focused on millennials and male CEOs make it a bit narrow, but has enough stories to provoke ideas.
March 16, 2020
I was looking for something more. It has a good list of tips and good stories (some widely known already). I think it does not honor the title, there is no blueprint whatsoever.
May 23, 2023
Short but packed with great insights and inspiration on why companies need a vision, how to find one and how to engage your team around it. Will be putting a lot of this into action.
August 16, 2025
vision, clarity, communication, connection, culture
March 27, 2024
Whilst this book has plenty of good ideas (but none ground breaking), I found it really hard to engage with. Perhaps because the content in this book wasn't necessarily new content if you've read on leadership before and as a result it was hard to engage with concepts already explored. I found the balance between studies, interviews and concepts to be well done. Non fiction books can often fall heavily into either spectrum: research based or conversational. I think this would be a good starter book, but not particularly deep enough for someone well read on leadership.
August 28, 2017
not groundbreaking but (implicitly) bringing together and illustrating with good examples a range of recent trends in leadership research. good tips and a really handy and quick read as to what a modern leader requires.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews