Last week I was fortunate enough to take part in an intimate course with Robert Dilts. There was only a handful of us which is so unusual I had to mention it.

If you haven't heard of Robert Dilts, he's to NLP what Mozart is to classical music, HE SETS THE STANDARD! We got the chance to take part in 2 days of "bespoke" training on Visionary and Transformational Leadership as part of the publication of his latest book Next Generation Entrepreneurs: Live your dreams and create a better world through your business, smartly illustrated by Antonio Meza. What a course!

It's going to be hard for me to sum up all the benefits and tools we gained from the course in one article but I'll share some of the themes we addressed with you.

WHAT IS VISIONARY LEADERSHIP?

Visionary leadership comes from influence, unity and integrity rather than power. It involves relationship management, interaction and communication within a team, organism, network or social system to achieve a vision of a rewarding future.

“Leading” and “leadership” come from the Old English word lithan, which literally means “to go.” According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, leadership means “to guide on a way, especially by going in advance.” So leadership involves guiding and influencing people through what we say and do.

"To go" where we want, we need 2 things: a direction and energy. The essence of leadership is to provide a direction and energy e.g. by presenting a vision and motivating people.

From this perspective, leadership can be defined as an ability to:

  • Present a vision
  • Influence others to achieve results
  • Encourage teamwork
  • Set an exemple

THE INNER GAME

To set a good example, the first (and most important) person you have to lead is yourself. If we don't have the time to lead ourselves then we'll struggle to lead others.

The inner zone of excellence is a key part of what is known as the “inner game” of business. The concept of the “inner game” was developed by Timothy Gallwey as a way of helping people to achieve excellence in various sports (e.g., tennis, golf, skiing, etc.). He says, « In all human endeavor, there are two arenas of involvement: the outer and the inner. The outdoor game is played in an external arena, to overcome external obstacles and achieve an external goal. »

The inner game takes place inside the mind of the player and is played against obstacles such as fear, insecurity, lapses of focus and concepts or limiting assumptions. The Inner Game is a proven method for overcoming self-imposed obstacles that prevent an individual or team from reaching their full potential." »

When your outer game and inner game are working together, actions flow with a type of effortless excellence that is called, "playing in the zone."

Some indicators that you are focused and in "inner zone of excellence" are:

  • A sense of "humble authority": a feeling of confidence and the absence of anxiety and self-doubt.
  • A focus on performing beautifully and excellently.
  • A state of relaxed readiness in the body and focused spaciousness in the mind.
  • Performance comes without effort and without having to think about it.

It's something that you obviously have to work on regularly with physical and mental exercises to improve your "inner game" and self-awareness.

VISION

Vision is defined as "a mental image or picture of what the future could be or would look like."

In terms of vision, it requires "a capacity to create the future in your mind's eye or to plan it with imagination or wisdom." It involves the ability to see beyond "the here and now" and envisage future scenarios.

One key feature of vision among successful entrepreneurs is that it is always openly directed outside of the self. This vision affects what we want to see in the world, it means "creating a world to which people want to belong." We're part of this world but not integral to it.

So the entrepreneur's vision must answer these questions:

  • What do you want to create in the world you belong to?
  • What do you want to see more or less of in this world?
  • Which world do you want to belong to?

We also explored other essential themes to Vision such as Connecting your vision to your charisma, Liberating your vision in the field, Intervision, Managing the group imagineering process, Leadership moment and the power of presence, Balancing vision and ambition.

These tools helped us build on and support our own vision before moving onto inspiring others, as these tools are all useful to us.

Aren't we all potential Visionary and Transformational Leaders in our own lives?

We'd like to thank Robert Dilts for sharing his knowledge and the REPERE centre for this exceptional intimate course.

Inspiring!

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