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“A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done.”  –  Ralph Lauren

Happy New Year! The beginning of a new year is a great time to reframe or reset your life and leadership with a life makeover.  This makeover allows you to refresh or refine your life goals with promises, commitments or resolutions daily, which empower you to create the best version of your life experiences and live it in your own style the way you deserve!

Remarkable leaders understand the value of presenting, packaging and promoting their unique brand of leadership through strengthening their leadership presence.  Let’s face it – people who you lead must believe in you first, then your vision. Therefore, their impressions of your presence matter.

In my 25 years of mentoring women of all ages, I have come to realize that without a clear, purposeful vision, great leaders will perish by settling for being good or mediocre.  I am personally and professionally committed to awakening in you, as a leader, a desire to make the vision of your remarkable leadership presence plain and keep it clearly before yourself and others on a daily basis.  Therefore, when the setbacks and roadblocks come, you can stay on course in the journey.

One effective way to do this is by creating a ‘vision board’.  A vision board is a road map that is a fun and practical way to visualize it. This way, you can actualize what you are dreaming in your head and keep it before you so that it can become an achievable reality. It will allow you to reflect your goals and dreams in pictures, quotes, affirmations of the areas of your life that you want to transform such as: relationships (family, friends or colleagues), mentors, personal development, career (promotion, new career), finances, health (weight loss) and spiritual.  The vision board shown is an example of a health board from www.makeavisionboard.com.

Trust me; there are so many inventive ways to create it.  Believe it or not, one website even offers a way to put it to music.  Remember, this is about you and your life and style as a leader.  Therefore, you can make it simple, eclectic or very elaborate.  This will be your clear action plan for your life as a leader.  After all, every leader must know where they are going, how to get there and who to take alongside of them.

Why not create your own “Leadership Presence” vision board to help you to clarify your personal brand?  Start with a beautifully framed corkboard, scissors, glue, tape and thumbtacks.  Here are some suggestions of things to include:

  • Find some dynamic leadership quotes that resonate with you. John Maxwell, Dale Carnegie, Tony Robbins and Seth Godin are a few great names
  • Choose a powerful illustration, story or blog
  • Determine your Leadership Calling Statement in 5-8 words
  • Find pictures that reflect your personal style: clothes, accessories, “power colors”, patterns that invigorate you to pursue beauty authentically.  Personal photos and magazines are a great source
  • Select your collectibles, tokens or symbols from mentors that inspire you personally or virtually

Once you finish it, find a suitable place to hang it so that it becomes a daily reminder and motivator. This way, as you see it, think on it, act on it then you will become it.  This is one effective way to write the vision, make it plain and keep it before you.  Lastly, remember:

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.”  –  Henry David Thoreau