Here are eight steps you can take to bring something from an idea
into reality:
- Determine what you want. Start with an image or vision of something you want to create. The inspiration, and the journey to achieve it, is your own personal
leadership challenge. What do you want to create? What is your vision?
- Make the choice to create it or not. Use your skills of measurement, analysis, and assessment of resources to determine what’s doable and how much you
want it. What’s the first step? What do you need to know before you commit?
Also, determine what you do not want to create. This allows you to visualize a
different project and focus your energy.
- Articulate and communicate the vision. Are you planning to collaborate? Great, you’ll have to enlist some support and help by effectively communicating
something new to someone who doesn’t see it. Enjoy learning to paint your
picture in words.
- Assemble the tools, resources, and team required. If your vision is big, you’ll need some help. Like a master chef, gather the best ingredients possible. Hire
the best people, raise enough money, and allow enough time for your creation to
mature.
- Work through obstacles, both real and imagined. Obstacles can teach you to be a better creator. The great filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker said, “Filmmaking
is problem solving.”What is the fear behind the apparent obstacle? What
is on the other side of the fear? Whose help do you need to transform this obstacle
into an opportunity?
- Make use of the best skills of others around you in ways that will get what
you want and what they want. Collaboration is an art form in itself. How are you
inspiring others to do their best work in a way that serves your vision? How do
you balance collaboration and control?
- Learn to adjust as the shape and character of the dream changes. Nothing is written, everything is re-written. Your ability to be a creator will be in direct
proportion to your ability to adjust and modify your original vision to what’s
actually going on.
- Step back, appreciate what is happening, and enjoy the journey. You’re never the same person at the end of the journey as you are when you begin and
what may have motivated you at the beginning may not seem relevant at the end.
Focus on completion, not perfection. Where is there room for improvement?
The more you practice these steps, the better you can navigate the
storms and obstacles on your journey. A coach can help you do your greatest work
with the greatest ease. PE
