Leadership vision relies on six primary elements: 1) self-knowledge to remove bias and focus on others, 2) commitment to developing employees which leads to better organizational outcomes, 3) recognizing the need for continual change and innovation to maintain competitive advantage, 4) properly defining problems rather than just addressing surface issues, 5) understanding the various contexts that influence and are influenced by issues, and 6) clearly communicating challenges and visions to employees. Leaders who demonstrate strengths in these six areas tend to be viewed as more capable and inspiring than those who do not.

1. THE SIX PRIMARY
ELEMENTS OF
LEADERSHIP VISION
SIX PRIMARY ELEMENTS:

2. 1. KNOWLEDGE OF ONESELF
Leaders' self-knowledge is critical to remove bias, self-seeking and self-
aggrandising behaviours and create a moral and ethical basis for the vision. This
includes emotion regulation and emotional intelligence, a learning orientation (a
commitment to their own development and growth), a concern for others, a sense
of duty and selflessness. This
study found that leaders who are rated high in terms of self-knowledge tend to be
perceived by their followers to be more capable, have greater clarity and are more
inspiring than leaders who are rated as having lower levels of self-knowledge.

3. 2. COMMITMENT TO OTHERS’ GROWTH
organisations led by people who openly demonstrate a commitment to the growth
and development of their employees tend to be more profitable and have better
organisational outcomes over the long-term than organisations that are less
committed to the development of their people.

4. 3. SEEING THE NEED TO CHANGE -
One of the hallmarks of an effective leader is a learning orientation and a concern
for continual improvement, innovation and change. The ability to coordinate the
process of change has been found in recent years to be a critical leadership skill.
Leaders who perceive that continual change and innovation is required not only to
maintain a competitive advantage, but also to ensure longevity of the organisation
tend to be perceived as having greater levels of vision than leaders without this
understanding.

5. 4. FINDING THE RIGHT PROBLEM -
It has been found that leaders that display a significant concern for defining the
correct problem for taking action tend to be seen as more visionary than those who
work at solving presenting problems. Known as 'profound knowledge' the ability of
the leader to gain clarity and understand the issue from a range of perspectives,
gain clarity and determine what the causal factors of a situation or issue really are,
tend to achieve significantly better outcomes than leaders who simply deal with
presenting issues. This requires the ability to discern the underlying trends,
principles and causes of an issue or problem. Such leaders tend to be seen as more
considered and visionary.

6. 5. CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING -
Those leaders with the ability to analyse, assess and understand the context the
issue sits in (this includes the social, political, economic, scientific, technological,
environmental and legal contexts) tend to have significantly better outcomes than
leaders with low levels of contextual understanding. Further, such leaders are seen
as being more visionary. Being able to take in and analyse the range of contexts
and relationships that impact and are impacted by the issue gives a leader a
significantly greater chance of success.

7. 6. COMMUNICATION -
Leaders who realise that they have a responsibility to others to clearly and
accurately work out and communicate the issues, problems and challenges faced
and have the capability to communicate these to their employees tend to have
better outcomes than those who gloss over the issues or allow them to remain
hidden. This means that leaders have a moral responsibility to not only
communicate and make clear the vision but also to help others to understand the
difficulties they face. Leaders who achieve this tend to be seen as more visionary
than those that abdicate this responsibility.