part 1

Idea: set your direction

Introduction

Our journey starts with an idea: not any idea, but your idea about your future perfect. Once you have this, you have your lodestar, which can guide you, focus your efforts, shape your team and give you your claim to fame. The greatest leaders have the greatest ideas. Anyone at any level can have a distinctive idea that drives their team forward. A good idea lets you lead, whatever your title or role may be.

Part 1 shows how the power of a good idea separates leaders from managers, and how you can develop your idea of a future perfect whatever role you may have now. But it is not enough to have an idea. You have to show that it is relevant, worthwhile and actionable. You have to communicate and sell the idea to your team, bosses and peers. And you have to know how to make the idea work alongside the formal strategy of your workplace, which means navigating the world of strategy comfortably.

By the end of Part 1, you should be more comfortable about defining, evaluating and selling your future perfect idea. It is this that shapes your future, so it is the natural starting point for this book. Parts 2 and 3 will show how you can convert your idea into reality through a great team and by mastering the art of making things happen in a complex world.