Leadership

Abstract

ENTPs have a vision of what could be and a powerful drive to turn that vision into reality. Having a mental picture of where the company is going will always be an important part of leadership. To choose a direction a leader must first have developed a mental image of a possible and desirable future state of the organization. The critical point is that a vision articulates a view of a realistic, credible, attractive future for the organization, a condition that is better in some important ways than what now exists. Visionary leaders search for the vision by paying attention and continually learning. Most visionary leaders also spend a substantial portion of their time interacting with advisers, other leaders, scholars, planners, and a wide variety of other people both inside and outside their own organizations in this search. In the end, the visionary leader may be the one who articulates the vision in captivating rhetoric that fires imagination and emotions of followers, who through vision empowers others to make decisions that get things done.

Extraverted, intuitive, thinking, perceiving; ENTP's are inventors, innovators, explorers, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. Always looking over the next horizon, trying to push the edge of the envelope, and trying to do what other people say can be done are traits of the ENTP. ENTPs have a vision of what could be and a powerful drive to turn that vision into reality.

Having a mental picture of where the company is going will always be an important part of leadership. It also means describing that vision to others so that everyone is headed in the same direction. A person with vision that can't be put into action is a dreamer, not a leader. To choose a direction a leader must first have developed a mental image of a possible and desirable future sate of the organization. This image, which we call a vision, may be as vague as a dream or as precise as a goal or mission statement. The critical point is that a vision articulates a view of a realistic, credible, attractive future for the organization, a condition that is better in some important ways than what now exists. A vision is a target that beckons. A good example was, when John Kennedy set a goal of putting a man on the moon by 1970 (Bennis 67).

To understand why vision is so central to leadership success, reflect on why organizations are formed in the first place. An organization is a group of people engaged in a common enterprise. Individuals join the enterprise in hopes of receiving rewards for their participation. When the organization has a clear sense of its purpose, direction, and desire future state and when this image is widely shared, individuals are able to find their own roles both in the organization and in the society of which they are both a part. This empowers individuals and confers status upon them because they can see themselves as part of a worthwhile enterprise. They gain a sense of importance, as they are transformed from robots blindly following instructions to human beings engaged in a creative and purposeful venture. Under these conditions, the human energies of the organization are aligned toward a common end, and a major precondition for success has been satisfied. Thus, in a real sense, individual behavior can be shaped, directed, and coordinated by a shared and empowering vision of the future.

Visionary leaders search for the vision by paying attention and continually learning. John Kennedy spent a great deal of time reading history and studying the ideas of great thinkers. Martin Luther King, Jr., found many of his ideas in the study of religious and ethical ideologies (Bennis 89). Lenin was greatly influenced by the scholarship of Karl Marx, in much the same as many contemporary business leaders are influenced by the works of leading economists and management scholars (Bennis 90). Steve Jobs at Apple and Edwin Land at Polaroid were able to develop their visions from logical processes, mostly by seeking the technical limits of known technologies (Bennis 90). In all of these cases, the leaders may have been the one who chose the image from those available at the moment, articulated it, gave it form and legitimacy, and focused attention on it, but the leader only rarely was the one who conceived of the vision in the first place. Therefore, the visionary leader must be a superb listener, particularly to those advocating new or different images of the emerging reality. Most visionary leaders also spend a substantial portion of their time interacting with advisers, other leaders, scholars, planners, and a wide variety of other people both inside and outside their own organizations in this search. Ulysses S. Grant had a vision of the United States as a strong, intelligent, nation, populated by a peaceful, prosperous, self-governing citizenry- who were free to better their condition through industry and who had the right to retain the fruits or their labor.