A = ACHIEVE

The first of the 26 principles

of

FUTURISTIC LEADERSHIP

is to

ACHIEVE goals, objectives,
and results.

FUTURISTIC MEANING of ACHIEVE

To bring to a perfected future state. To carry to a final close. To accomplish or perform a feat, exploit, or enterprise. To obtain or gain, as the result of exertion. To finish. To win.

Similar to: Accomplish, fulfill, complete, execute, perform, realize, obtain.

Opposites: Blow it, choke, fail, fall short, lose, miss, quit.

QUOTATIONS to INSPIRE YOU to ACHIEVE

Destiny is not a matter of chance;

it is a matter of choice.

It is not to be waited for;

it is to be achieved.

— William Jennings Bryan

There is nothing that cannot be

achieved by firm imagination.

— Japanese Proverb

I want to put a ding in the universe.

— Steve Jobs

Those who dare to fail miserably,

can achieve greatly.

— John F. Kennedy

When one door closes another opens;

but we often look so long and so

regret­fully upon the closed door,

that we do not see the ones

which open for us.

— Alexander Graham Bell

FUTURISTIC LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE

The future belongs to those who get there first — to those who ACHIEVE.

The word “achieve” comes from the French “achever” (to finish) and “chef” (chief). In short, chiefs finish things. Each of us has an innate need to achieve, but true leaders achieve their goals before others — and finish what they start.

EXAMPLE & APPLICATION

We don’t know what we’re capable of until we envision ourselves out of our existing situation. For example:

Raised on a poor farm by her grandmother, who taught her to read at age 3, Oprah Winfrey was the first African-American woman billionaire. The ability to read launched her career: she began reciting readings at church, and her books revealed new life options. Watching her grandmother boiling clothes one day (they had no washing machine) she had a vision of the need to change her life. Challenged by her father to be an “A” student, she became an honors grad. She also became a radio announcer while still in high school and a TV anchor while still attending university. By 1985, at age 31, she had the Oprah Show with a 20+ million world audience, her own production company Harpo, an Oscar nomination in movies, and was planning her book club and magazine. Oprah changed her life and, in turn, views her calling as helping other people change their lives. She says that only by accepting your life can you change it, and that success is about reaching the point where you are comfortable with yourself and your role in life. In 1998, Time magazine named her one of the most influential people of the century. In 2001, she was chosen to co-host the memorial service at Yankee Stadium for the 9/11 victims. In 2004, Wharton business school named her one of the most influential business people of the last 25 years. Her production company generates $314 million in annual revenues. These and many other achievements are a story of steely determination to change her lot in life, an unswerving focus, and a selfless approach to helping others to do likewise.

To achieve your goals, force yourself out of your comfort zone, realistically access your present situation and future possibilities, and you will achieve them. Set your priority and go for it.

QUESTIONS to ASK YOURSELF

□ How achievement-oriented am I?

□ How about our organization?

□ What do we feel most passionate about?

□ What’s the #1 priority for us to achieve?

□ What will we look like when it’s done?

What is Futuristic Leadership?

There are three kinds of people:

those who make things happen,

those who watch things happen, and

those who wonder what happened.

— James Lovell (NASA astronaut)

You can’t manage change.

You can only be ahead of it.

— Peter Drucker (management guru)

ONLY THE FUTURE IS MANAGEABLE,

due to three inescapable reasons: 

• You can’t manage the past. it’s over and done with. You can only change a prior decision by making a new decision sometime from now. 
• You can’t manage the present. It is a mere nano­second of time as we constantly move from the past to the future.
• You can only manage “what hasn’t happened yet” — the future. 

Leadership is about steering your organization into that ever-new future. Of course, otherwise-logical people protest that you logically can’t predict the future. They say the future can’t be known. That’s because the future defies purely logical thinking. Instead, it comes logically to the intuitive rather than the linear mind. You can “see” the future.

How Can You “See” the Future?

The “unknown” future can become “known” quite clearly by whole-brained futuristic leaders. They see its wholeness — the big picture — and how it fits together and how trends interact.

Futuristic leaders literally “see” the future and then “map” how to get there. They have a clear idea of what the future will be like. It’s not magic or crystal-ball gazing; they have a genuine feel for relevant trends and their outcome. True leaders are futurists.

Jigsaw Puzzle of the Future

Futurists constantly try to assemble a jigsaw puzzle of the future. You never have all the pieces, so the picture is never complete. In fact, each morning you’ll find some pieces (that you put in the jigsaw as recently as last night) are in the wrong place and you need to re-think things.

Futuristic leaders take minute-to-minute decisions based on that iterative jigsaw puzzle, which they keep at the forefront of their minds. Their never-completed jigsaw puzzle is a constantly changing focus board. No, that is not a contradiction. Christopher Columbus found the New World by using a very speculative map.

Their evolving jigsaw puzzle helps futuristic leaders navigate the uncharted territory of their organization’s future. Their jigsaw puzzle is their “map” to their “new world” — a future which they see most vividly, and which they set out to reach as expeditiously as possible.

Futuristic Leaders Stand in the Future

In the end, it’s not so much what will happen but what you do about it. As noted in an earlier post, futuristic leaders are doers; they achieve things. They are verbs.

Futuristic leaders don’t tip-toe into the future; they stride boldly forward, guided by trends. In fact, they always plant one foot in the future. They regularly stand in the future, take a good look around, scout the best options, and feel comfortable there. They virtually live there.

Futuristic Leaders Are Time Travelers

Futuristic leaders traverse a past-present-future time continuum, constantly shifting perspective along that continuum. They surf across the sweep of time, creating change and making strategic decisions about how best to navigate their organization’s optimal future.

So what’s going on in your organization’s future? 

• Based on where you are now, what does your future look like?
• What are you doing about it?
• What will your organization do about it?
• How would you like things to be different?
• How can you make things different?
• What is your “map” to your new world?

This blog will prompt many such questions.

Use it to take a realistic look at the various leadership

options for your organization. Make the best one happen,

and I guarantee you’ll leave a true legacy of futuristic leadership.

Futuristic Leaders

I have no fear of the future.

Let us go forward into its mysteries,

let us tear aside the veils which hide it

from our eyes, and let us move onward

with confidence and courage.

— Winston S. Churchill

FUTURISTIC LEADERS

literally “see” the future
and make it happen. 

They enable others to see it, motivate them to venture there,
lead them there, reward them when they get there, and
celebrate their collective success.

They are true leaders who understand

the A-Z of winning the future, as follows:

Futuristic leaders ACHIEVE results because they truly BELIEVE a different future is possible. They CHANGE their own and their organization’s behavior, habits, and culture, in order to obtain their collective DREAM.


Futuristic leaders fully EXPECT to reach their goal — and also fully “expect the unexpected” along the way — because they unswervingly FOCUS on that goal.


Aware that reaching the future requires that they and their organizations GROW — both mentally and spiritually — futuristic leaders HEAR things: they listen intently for clues and pieces of vital information that will guide them in that growth.


Futuristic leaders vividly IMAGINE what the future will be like, what needs to change to get there, and how the charted course might need to vary along the route.


They JUSTIFY their mission, not only based on profitable returns, but in the proper ethics and values that will bring it to fruition.


Futuristic leaders KNOW both what they know and what they don’t know, and what more they and their teams will still need to know in the future. They constantly LEARN, day by day, decision by decision, as they move forward.


Futuristic leaders MOTIVATE themselves, and inspire those around them to do the same, to adventurously NAVIGATE previously uncharted territory. They ORGANIZE and optimize every available capacity and resource to help them PERSEVERE until every part of the mission is accomplished.


Futuristic leaders always QUESTION their advisors, their information, and themselves. Then they can best RESPOND to challenges and opportunities in ways that STRATEGIZE the most responsible and best possible future outcomes.


Futuristic leaders TEACH everything they know to the highest-qualified teams of individuals. They UPLIFT them to VISUALIZE and drive towards their collective future.


As well, in today’s “webolutionary” Internet Age, futuristic leaders encourage their teams to literally WEBIFY their organizations into value-creating networks, or “biznets.”


Futuristic leaders also XEROGRAPH themselves: they “clone” or duplicate their own abilities and processes in others, to ensure ongoing growth and continuity through yet another generation of futuristic leaders.


Finally, futuristic leaders repeatedly YIELD consistent and spectacular results, and ZOOM their organizations speedily to ever-succeeding peaks of success.

There are obvious interconnections between these 26 verbs.

Futuristic leadership is a dynamic A-Z synergy of seeing the whole future

— and then making it happen in the most expeditious and responsible way.

This Blog will explore these 26 attributes in detail, and address

modern and future issues of leadership and corporate governance.

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