Manifest a Vision

How Exceptional Leaders Create Futures

Most leaders have a vision. Fewer know how to manifest it. Fewer still know how to live from it as if it were already real. In management, we talk of goals, strategies, and outcomes. But behind every strategic plan is a more subtle art: the leader’s capacity to imagine, embody, and magnetise a future not yet born. So how do you move from vision-board fluff or generic mission statements into something that actually moves markets, people, and possibilities?

To Manifest A Vision: Start With the End in Mind

Covey (1989) said it simply: “Begin with the end in mind.” But real vision is not a paragraph on a slide. It is felt, not just stated. The best visions are emotionally magnetic—they pull you forward like gravity. To build one:

• Ask: What kind of world, company, or life do I want to stand in five years from now?

• Write it in the present tense, as if it’s already true.

• Describe what people feel, how decisions are made, what values are alive.

I remember sitting with my wide envisioning our ideal home. I kept looking at this desire to be close to nature every day. Gradually, we both attracted more work so we could afford a move. At the same time our neighborhood deteriorated so we decided to move. A friend informed us that a place was about to be vacated soon. We contacted the owner and secured the home we wanted without searching further. It felt like divine support guided us.

A real vision is not invented. It is remembered from a future that already wants to happen.

Translate Vision into Goals and Strategy

A vision without structure is a dream. So the next step to manifest a vision is translating it into goals and strategy. Strategy is the long term direction that you are going to take. Many times it is fuzzy as we do not know the future. However we can sense it and develop key milestones. From this strategy we create goals, tangible actions or aspects that we need to do to achieve the strategy.

In a McKinsey (2020) study, companies with a clear and coherent long-term vision outperformed their peers by over 200% in total shareholder return. Why? Because vision reduces friction and energises innovation. Many times it also reorients short term decisions towards long term strategies by creating priorities.

Strategy is the logical direction. Vision is fuel. Without vision, you’re just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

What a Magnetic Leader Does Differently

A CEO builds vision through planning. A Magnetic Leader, like the mythical Merlin builds vision through presence. Here’s the distinction:

• Most leaders project a vision forward whilst Merlin-types anchor in the frequency of the future and move from it now.

• Most leaders push goals whilst Merlin-types cultivate identity and field—knowing that when the inner state aligns, right actions emerge organically.

• Most leaders chase market advantage whereas Merlin-types become signal transmitters—their vision isn’t louder; it’s clearer. People feel it before they understand it.

Where traditional leadership asks:

“How do I get there?”

The Merlin asks:

“Who must I become so the vision arrives through me?”

Exceptional Leaders Operate From Presence, Not Pressure

In most executive environments, vision is constructed through planning cycles, analytical forecasting, and a clearly defined roadmap. The typical CEO or senior leader builds vision by identifying market opportunities, setting long-term targets, and coordinating teams and resources to pursue measurable outcomes (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, & Lampel, 2005).

This approach works. But increasingly, it is proving insufficient in today’s complex, volatile, and fast-shifting environments (Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). Enter a different kind of leader—what we might call the Magnetic Leader. Rather than pushing vision forward, they cultivate the a state of mind from which that vision naturally unfolds. They lead not just with data—but with presence (Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, & Flowers, 2005).

Step 1: From Vision to Presence

Traditional leadership projects the vision as an external destination. It is future-focused, often outlined through vision statements, market analysis, and quarterly targets (Collins & Porras, 1996). Magnetic leaders—what Scharmer (2009) might call “presencing” leaders—cultivate an internal resonance with the future they are building.

They emotionally and cognitively embody the end-state now, allowing actions to arise from that energetic alignment. This is a form of embodied foresight: a leader’s capacity to integrate imagination, intuition, and logic into present-moment awareness (Kegan & Lahey, 2009).

Most leaders project a vision forward. Magnetic leaders anchor in the future they want to create and move from it now.

Step 2. From Goal Setting to Identity Cultivation

Goals are central to performance management, but over-reliance on goals without internal alignment often leads to disconnection, burnout, or disillusionment (Latham & Locke, 2002). In contrast, identity-based leadership development focuses on who the leader is becoming. This produces more sustainable transformation (Ibarra, Snook, & Ramo, 2008).

A Magnetic Leader’s question is not just “What should we do?” but “Who must we be to move in alignment with this vision?” This aligns with deliberate developmental organisations (Kegan et al., 2016), where leadership growth is synonymous with personal evolution.

Most leaders push goals. Magnetic Leaders cultivate identity and knowing so right actions emerge organically.

Step 3. From Market Advantage to Signal Clarity

In markets saturated with information and similarity, clarity of identity becomes the differentiator (Hamel & Prahalad, 1994). When leaders are internally aligned, they broadcast a signal that resonates emotionally with customers, employees, and stakeholders alike.

This form of energetic leadership creates “felt sense” coherence—where the brand, behaviour, tone, and decision-making feel congruent (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2013).

Rather than amplifying volume, Magnetic Leaders refine signal, creating trust through coherence.

Most leaders chase market advantage. Magnetic leaders transmit the essence of their vision. People feel it before they understand it.

Leadership today is no longer just about commanding resources. It’s about organising inner alignment so the outer world responds in kind (Torbert & Associates, 2004). When leaders operate from presence, clarity, and embodied vision, they don’t just move teams forward. They open doors to new possibilities—often before others can even see them.

References

• Collins, J., & Porras, J. I. (1996). Building your company's vision. Harvard Business Review, 74(5), 65–77.

• Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Free Press.

• Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2013). Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Harvard Business Review Press.

• Hamel, G., & Prahalad, C. K. (1994). Competing for the future. Harvard Business School Press.

• Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Harvard Business Press.

• Ibarra, H., Snook, S., & Ramo, L. G. (2008). Identity-based leader development. In D. B. Smith & J. B. Hollenbeck (Eds.), Leadership Quarterly, 19(5), 566–582.

• Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). Immunity to change: How to overcome it and unlock the potential in yourself and your organization. Harvard Business Press.

• Kegan, R., Lahey, L. L., Fleming, A., & Miller, M. (2016). An everyone culture: Becoming a deliberately developmental organization. Harvard Business Review Press.

• Latham, G. P., & Locke, E. A. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717.

• McKinsey & Company. (2020). Purpose: Shifting from why to how. https://www.mckinsey.com 

• Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B., & Lampel, J. (2005). Strategy safari: A guided tour through the wilds of strategic management. Simon and Schuster.

• Scharmer, O. (2009). Theory U: Leading from the future as it emerges. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

• Senge, P., Scharmer, O., Jaworski, J., & Flowers, B. (2005). Presence: Human purpose and the field of the future. Currency/Doubleday.

• Torbert, W. R., & Associates. (2004). Action inquiry: The secret of timely and transforming leadership. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.