THE ART OF LEADING BY LOOKING AHEAD

anticipateA Groundbreaking Guide To Developing Visionary Capacity
 
What enables great corporate leaders to detect signals that their industry, or perhaps the entire world, is about to change?  How are they able to place their companies in a position to capitalize on that change?  And how can someone become one of those extraordinary people?
 
It boils down to visionary capacity.  Leaders who lack it often guide their companies to obsolescence and failure.  The rare leaders who cultivate a strong vision — the ability to see things early, the ability to connect the dots — have disrupted industries, created new ones, and remade the world.
 
In ANTICIPATE:  The Art Of Leading By Looking Ahead, strategy and leadership expert Rob-Jan de Jong draws on extensive research and field work with executives, offering practical guidance and concrete techniques to help any leader become more visionary.  “My aim is to increase your personal visionary capacity and bring out what a powerful vision can do for your personal leadership . . . A truly powerful vision provides direction and is emotionally engaging and authentic.  It’s a valuable tool for leaders and aspiring leaders that allows you to do what leadership all about:  to ignite others,” de Jong writes.
 
Fortunately, visionary leadership is never an accident of birth.  de Jong — speaker, consultant, and faculty member at Wharton’s flagship executive program Global Strategic Leadership — teaches the practices that can make a successful visionary, such as:
 
    ·      Growing one’s ability to detect change early
    ·      Learning to connect the dots among emerging trends to develop a coherent and robust vision
    ·      Creating scenarios that help design interruptive strategies, products, and services that are game changers
    ·      Incorporating practical ideas and exercises into one’s daily routine to nurture one’s visionary side
    ·      Learning to speak like a visionary leader, presenting ideas more colorfully, and igniting followers emotionally so they’ll put their best efforts into a    commonly shared cause
 
After covering the elements of visionary development, de Jong moves on to what it takes to truly become a visionary leader:  leading with authenticity and integrity.  Along the way he shares his mindset-changing practices for leaders at all levels as well as the rules for FuturePriming (a process for anticipating, clarifying, and seizing on future events) and the concept of FutureFacts (a FutureFact is a manifestation of a possible changing reality).
As de Jong writes, “Despite the widespread acknowledgement of its importance, there is a steep downward slope in how leaders fruitfully engage with the future to develop their forward-oriented perspective.  My ongoing exploration of this topic over the years has led me to believe that anyone can improve their visionary side.  Substantially, even.  This also — and especially — applies to those who do not aspire to become larger-than-life heroes, but who do want to be a source of inspiration to their followers and want to lead their teams and organizations with energizing direction and purpose.”
 
About the Author
Rob-Jan De Jong is one of five faculty members in Wharton’s flagship executive program Global Strategic Leadership.  A sought-after international consultant, he helps leaders and companies anticipate the future and arrive at winning strategies.  His clients include Philips, ING, HCL, Total Oil, and other top organizations and business schools.  He lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
ANTICIPATE:  The Art Of Leading By Looking Ahead
by Rob-Jan de Jong
Publisher:  AMACOM
Publication date:  January 2015
Price:  $27.95 hardcover
ISBN:  978-0-8144-4907-3