Visionary Leadership

by Burt Nanus

Book Overview

Warren Bennis writes, the bookfills me with equal amounts ofadmiration and envy. For the first time ever, Nanus defines for uswhat 'the vision thing' is all about.

Successful leaders know that nothing drives an organization like anattractive, worthwhile, achievable vision for the future.Leadership expert and best-selling author Burt Nanus finally showswhy vision is the key to leadership and demonstrates how any leadercan use a logical, step-by-step...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787901148
• ISBN13: 9780787901141
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Helpful and practical

This book isn't another list of leadership principles. It's laid out as a workbook to guide you step by step through evaluating your organization's current vision and developing a new vision. I was disappointed that Nanus didn't spend more time discussing the implementation of vision, but he does point you to other works that speak to implementation. This is the kind of book you want on your shelf to refer back to every year or two.

One of the best!

Burt Nanus is very humble in his writing style. The feel of this book is almost bible like. This book is designed for individual leaders to develop their own vision statement, this book guides readers through the mechanics of forming a vision, guidelines for developing the scope of the vision, and processes for implementing that vision. You will be influenced and exposed to high quality material with the same attention to detail you found in the late Peter Drucker's work, however you will not gain an instant vision by reading this book. It is definitely a good book to keep in your collection. Visionary Leadership is an indispensable guide for leaders at all levels. It will always help you to retrace your steps.

The Sourcebook for Organizational Visioning

I have used this book as a guide to visioning in a higher education environment, specifically, health care professional education.This book is the definitive resource for leading an organization to a new future. It clearly delineates the steps the leader should follow to bring the organization to a shared vision of its future which is inspirational yet achievable.The supporting rationale for the advantages of Visioning over conventional Strategic Planning is explained by the author.The progression from Vision to implementation of strategies is also treated in depth.I have used his book for nine years in two different institutions and consider it to be an indispensible part of my personal approach to leadership.

We enthusiastically recommend this book

Bookstall 99 proudly recommends this outstanding book to managers and leaders everywhere. The enlightenment to the path to a true vision for an organization is brilliantly set forth. This single text can show a way to improve your organization beyond any other program. We enjoyed this book and refer it to you as a sample of excellence.

Top quality insights to meaningful leadership.

It's not often that an author keeps "topping" previous work in terms of refining intricate concepts, but that is what Nanus has done here. If you are in a leadership position, the diagram of the essential components of leadership in the first chapter is alone worth the price of admission. These are insights by someone who has studied and analyzed what it takes to be a "facilitative" leader--not a boss leader, not a manager, but a true "inspirer" of others who can harness the energies and maximize the focus of an organization--a "leader of leaders"--this book essentially lays out how to maximize BOTH alignment and empowerment----this is a great book.