Taking the 'My' out of 'My Promise'

Abstract

The propensity of principal ownership for a leader’s vision can serve as a limit to the successful realization of that vision. While early on it may be effective to relate to one’s vision as, “My vision,” or, “My promise for the world," such languaging can constrain how a vision occurs for a leader and those being led to a possessive relationship with the consequent correlated ways of being and acting paralleling such a relationship. Taking the required actions for making good on one’s promise for the world requires disentangling “my” from “my promise”.

This paper explores these concepts through a discussion of the author’s personal experience in being part of a greater project to develop a course that would actually create leaders and providing that course to cadets and faculty at the US Air Force Academy. The author shares her personal challenges in transferring the course for others to teach.

Keywords: Vision, Promise, Language, Ownership, Leadership, Reality