Have you noticed that the executive leaders at your company are visionary? Have you taken note of your boss often talking about the future of your industry, and expressing big-picture views? Executive leaders and other visionary people may even tend to think so far out that it can even be difficult for them to focus on tactical matters and immediate projects that employees want to accomplish. Yet, developing a vision for the future is a key part of inspiring others and something great executives need. If you could benefit from becoming more of a visionary leader who influences those around you, this article is for you.

Insight is one of the main pillars of being a visionary. Insight is a deep level of understanding, and it is what happens when people apply the wisdom gained through their experience to their learning and knowledge to create clear outcomes. Insight is different from outright knowledge.

As educated professionals, we have all been programmed to learn, read and absorb information, and then regurgitate that information back when needed. But a more effective skill of learning is not just repeating information, but knowing how to create new mental models and cognitive understanding to gain insight. And those who practice this regularly improve their ability to develop insights more quickly from their knowledge.

Imagination is the second pillar to develop on the path to becoming a visionary at work. Imagination means “to picture oneself”. It’s the ability to envision things in your mind before they exist.

As children, we’re typically encouraged to use our imagination. But in adulthood, most of us become immersed in the real world. Our actual day-to-day tasks at work consume our thoughts and our time. Being caught up in reality blocks us from simply exercising our imagination about how things might be. And eventually, we no longer exercise this skill at all.

No matter what invention you consider, anything that exists was first created in someone’s mind before it materialized. And when observing visionaries around you, you’ll notice they have an ability to picture things in their mind before they exist in the world.

This is true imagination.

To develop this skill yourself, a helpful exercise is to ask yourself questions like: “What might be the outcome if…?” Daring to ask “what if” questions and allowing yourself to dream up new and different answers can help you become great at imagining new things. And this skill of imagination will enable you to have visions of original ideas at your company and innovative goals for your team.

Intuition comes from the Latin word “intuit”, which means “to perceive.” Intuition is not the same as gut instinct. Gut instinct is something that causes us to avoid pain and move toward something more pleasing to us. But intuition is the skill that allows us to perceive things that are deeper than seen on the surface.

This is the skill that helps us instinctively know something even though we haven’t explicitly been told or taught it. Intuition is innate, and we all can hone our abilities to understand our intuition. Through learning to think deeply and become an observer, we can practice intuition at work and in our lives. If you’d like to learn more about how to hone your intuition, this video can give you some helpful ideas.

If your goal is to become a visionary leader for your team, the power is within you. By noticing and practicing these three pillars of insight, imagination, and intuition, you can develop the visionary skills you admire in other executive leaders. In doing so, you can become a more innovative, courageous, and forward-thinking leader.

Now it is time to move away from the knowledge-gathering stage of reading and move on to the application of knowledge. If you’d love to learn how to put the principles covered in this article into action, join me in my executive coaching program where I’ll introduce you to a powerful self- and career-development process.

This is an implementation-to-results program for growth-oriented executives who seek greater career fulfillment through becoming a more skilled version of themselves. It is designed to help you master your mind, develop deeper insights, elevate your communication skills, and become inspired in your career growth.

If you’d love to find out how my methodology can help you with your career goals, apply HEREfor an opportunity to work with me.