Becoming Your Best: The 12 Principles of Highly Successful Leaders

CHAPTER 2

Lead with a Vision

Put your vision to work and get outstanding results.

Iattended an international conference of business executives in Istanbul, Turkey, that featured as guest speakers the president of Coca-Cola and the president of Mercedes-Benz. In separate speeches, both of these high-level business leaders said that they don’t believe in mission statements.

I was intrigued by their comments. They described how important it was to them, as individuals and as company presidents, to have clear, inspiring, and transformational visions of who they were and where they wanted to go. I believe that what they were saying was that we need to be careful not to create a “mission statement,” hang it on the wall, and feel that this makes us ...