Martha Lawrence
Leaders today don’t have it easy. The psychological weight of breaking headlines, the interruptions of constant notifications, and an unending stream of urgent demands through various platforms pull leaders in multiple directions at once. In this environment, planning for the future can feel all but impossible.
And yet, as Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller write:
“All true leadership begins with a picture of the future.”
The quote is taken from their best-selling book The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do
, newly released this month in a revised and updated fourth edition. The book introduces a time-tested leadership framework captured in the acronym SERVE. Two of the SERVE principles—See the Future and Reinvent Continuously—are especially relevant right now, when the ability to think long term and create a compelling picture of the future has never been more essential.
Secret #1: Leadership Starts with Seeing the Future
A future-ready leader takes an active role in shaping the months and years ahead. This leadership skill isn’t about predicting trends or guessing what might happen next. It’s about seeing a desired future and creating a compelling vision that stirs passion within you. Leading into the future starts by connecting to something that inspires you: something bigger than yourself that can inspire others as well.
The compelling vision behind an organization called Miracle Messages provides an uplifting example. When social entrepreneur Kevin Adler lost his favorite uncle, Mark—an unhoused man who lived with schizophrenia—he began wondering what he could do for people who slept on the streets each night.
Kevin spent a year getting to know his unhoused neighbors. That’s how he met Jeffrey, who hadn’t seen his family in 22 years. Kevin recorded a short video message from Jeffrey to his sister and posted it in a Facebook group connected to their hometown.
Within an hour, hundreds of people had responded to the post, some offering jobs and medical care. Jeffrey’s sister was tagged in the post, which led to their reunion.
That was the inspiration for Kevin Adler’s vision: a world where no one goes through homelessness alone. His compelling picture of the future was that “people everywhere will be inspired to embrace their unhoused neighbors not as problems to be solved, but as people to be loved.”
To turn his vision into reality, Kevin founded Miracle Messages, a nonprofit that helps people experiencing homelessness to rebuild their social support systems and financial security. Staffed by an inspired workforce fluent in digital connection tools, today the organization has reunited more than 1,000 families worldwide.
See the Future from Where You Are
Creating a vision is not just the prerogative of idealistic entrepreneurs and charismatic executives. Vision can start anywhere. If you are a team leader, you can help your team create a vision. Here are some key questions to ask:
- What do I want this team to accomplish?
- What do I want to be true in the future that is not true today?
- Why should others care about this preferred future?
- What are the values that will guide our journey?
Secret #2: Leadership Succeeds by Reinventing Continuously
If seeing the future sets the destination, reinventing continuously ensures you can actually get there. The world is not static. As circumstances change, you must adapt and adjust to reach your preferred future. Modern aircraft navigation systems make continuous adjustments to keep the plane from going off course. Just as these systems recalibrate, so must you.
That means having what Blanchard and Miller call “a healthy disrespect for the status quo.” Future-ready leaders don’t assume that what worked yesterday will work
tomorrow. They are constantly looking for ways to improve, adapt, and evolve. This reinvention happens in three key areas: Self, Systems, and Structure.
Reinvent Yourself. Look at any leader you admire, and you will notice that they are learners, always open to information and ideas that will help make their vision a reality. They have a special aptitude for reinventing themselves.
You can do the same. The secret is to focus on learning. As Blanchard and Miller put it:
“If you stop learning, you stop leading.”
Start by finding your own approach to learning. You can read, watch videos, listen to audio books and podcasts, or spend time with mentors—whatever it takes to keep
learning. Immersing yourself in fresh, innovative thinking will boost your knowledge and help you respond to challenges as you work toward your goals.
Reinvent Systems. As you embark on manifesting your picture of the future, you’ll benefit by examining and reassessing the systems you have in place for getting the work done. Incorporating AI thoughtfully and strategically into workflows is a prime example of how leaders can reinvent systems. Ask the following questions:
- How can we do the work better?
- How can we do it with fewer errors?
- How can we reach our goals faster?
- How can we achieve our goals at lower cost?
A vision becomes a reality through the people and tasks working on it day by day. By adopting a mindset of continuous improvement, you and your team can bring that vision to life.
Reinvent Structure. Being ready for the future often requires a leader to rethink how the whole structure behind the work is organized.
Too often, organizations become trapped by their own frameworks and people end up serving the structure instead of the structure serving the mission. It takes courage and humility to admit that a structure has become outmoded. To determine if this is the case in your organization, ask these questions: “Is the structure driving the decisions we’re making? Is there a way we can reinvent this structure to better serve our vision?”
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings offers a powerful case study of what it means to reinvent structure. In the early 2000s, Netflix was thriving as a DVD-by-mail business, even outperforming traditional video rental stores like Blockbuster. Rather than clinging to Netflix’s successful DVD-by-mail model, Hastings challenged the status quo and created a compelling picture of the future. He pivoted to streaming even before customers were demanding it, which required a complete overhaul of the company’s structure. In doing so, he didn’t just improve the business; he redefined an industry.
Great leaders stay flexible. They adapt roles, teams, and processes to make their vision a reality rather than clinging to what’s familiar.
Future-Ready Leaders See the Future and Reinvent Continuously
Future-ready leaders are constantly scanning the horizon and reshaping the path forward. While that may seem like a tall order, given all the demands and distractions of the present, Blanchard and Miller remind us:
“It’s the leader’s job to make time today to ensure that there is a tomorrow.”
So, as you deliver results in the present, be sure to dedicate time to shaping what comes next and building the capability to meet it. Because as a future-ready leader, you don’t passively wait for the future to arrive—you help create it.