A Captain's Guide to Visionary Leadership
An effective leadership philosophy to add to your tool belt.
👋 Welcome to The Influential Project Manager, a weekly newsletter covering the essentials of successful project leadership.
Today’s Overview:
“How to Build a Ship” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This quote highlights a key principle when it comes to leadership and something you can use as a tool on all your strategic initiatives.
Do not command and control. Help people catch the same vision you have. People will work much harder to achieve a dream than they will for almost any other reason. Most people are looking for a vision they can pour their heart into.
An accomplished leader will take the time to uncover about everyone’s personal vision and then help identify how that connects to the overarching project vision.
One Framework - How To Build A Ship
The other day I revisited one of my favorite leadership quotes of all times. It’s been a few years and since I first read it but it sunk in even deeper with me this time.
This quote highlights a key principle when it comes to leadership and something you can use as a tool on all your strategic initiatives.
As someone who leads teams and builds things for a living, I see how applicable this principle is to getting people to perform together as a team for one shared outcome.
As humans, we do this all of time. This is how pretty much everything is built in the world. Someone has a vision and then a group of people help bring the vision to reality. However, that vision or outcome will often mean something different to everyone, or even worse, could have no meaning at all. Everyone involved is there for their own reasons.
The people involved can either feel like they want to build it or feel like they have to build it. The answer to that will impact your outcomes and overall experience dramatically.
That’s where leadership comes in and this amazing quote:
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast endless sea.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
That’s a great way to build things and why this is one of my favorite leadership frameworks. It translates nicely to construction leadership:
“If you want to build a building, don’t drum up a bunch of trade partners, place a P6 schedule in their lap, and give orders. Instead, teach them to connect the success of the project to the impacts on their career goals, personal goals, family, or community.” - Kyle Nitchen
Do not command and control. Help people catch the same vision you have. People will work much harder to achieve a dream than they will for almost any other reason. Most people are looking for a vision they can pour their heart into. It could be related to their personal success, their family’s success, or success in the community.
Too many leaders expect their people to work just for money. They just drum up people to collect wood and assign them tasks. They never connect the mission and vision of the organization to each person’s work and role. Wise leaders do this and we can all learn to do better.
An accomplished leader will take the time to uncover about everyone’s personal vision and then help identify how that connects to the overarching project vision. Once you make that connection, you’ll tap into new levels of that person’s drive, initiative, and quality that weren't there before.
The best leaders never drum up people and assign tasks and work. They just keep showing people the bigger picture, teaching them about something endless and immense…
Quote to Ponder
“When in doubt, zoom out.” - Sahil Bloom
We live our lives zoomed in. We are on the ground, in the moment, every single day.
This creates two core challenges:
Struggle feels bigger than it really is.
Growth feels smaller than it really is.
The solution: Zoom out. When in doubt, zoom out.
Take a deep breath. Broaden your field of view. Gain higher ground on the problem. Watch how things open up and become clear.
The 10,000 foot view provides perspective—on the manageable nature of your struggles and the impressive nature of your growth.
Until next week,
Kyle Nitchen
Thanks for reading! Want to work together?
📣 Want your product or service featured in this newsletter?
Sponsor 'The Influential Project Manager' and directly engage our dedicated community of 2,000+ construction pros. They trust our weekly insights to boost leadership and project success.
☎ 1-on-1 Coaching
Are you interested in diving deeper into a particular topic or strategy? Book time with me for a 1:1 coaching or strategy session.
🎙 Interviews
Occasionally I guest appear on podcast shows to discuss leadership, construction project management, and continuous improvement. If you have a show and interested in interviewing me, feel free to get in touch.
📧 Support this Newsletter
The Influential Project Manager articles will remain free, but if you find this work valuable, I encourage you to become a paid subscriber. As a paid subscriber, you’ll help support this work.