Instructor:
Lene Kobbernagel

I strive to get people heard and understood.

Write Your Leadership Manifest

A Leadership Manifest develops your inner mindset around who you are as a senior leader.

A manifest means to make something real through thoughts, beliefs, and actions.

A Leadership Manifest is essentially a personal declaration that outlines your intention and your core beliefs and principles, as a leader. It acts as a guiding compass for how you choose to lead, influence, and make decisions.

Key Elements Included:

• Vision for Impact (e.g. “I lead to empower others to grow into the competencies of the future.”)

• Guiding Principles for Strategic Success: (e.g. “We embrace challenges as steppingstones rather than obstacles”

• Non-negotionable beliefs for the Approach the Company/Department needs to have: (e.g. “Leadership is not about avoiding hardships but about growing through them.

Start Reflecting….

Your Leadership Manifest is targeted yourself and should answer two crucial questions:

1. Why should the Executive Management (or Board) trust you as the right leader, who can take the business to the next level?

2. Which mindset and approach does it take for you, your leadership team and their people to become engaged in your Vision for Impact?

To answer these questions, you must reflect upon:

1. What are your Visions for Impact within the overall strategy? In two years, what have you accomplished? These answers sets the direction for your Leadership Manifest. It’s the easy part.

2. Now comes the hard part: The part, that shape and sharpen your mindset:

   Take a look at each big key task linked to the overall strategy.

   1. Which guiding principles do you want to guide the company’s approach to these key tasks? Why is this so important?

   2. Formulate 3-5 guiding principles.

   3. Which non-negotionable beliefs drives these principles?

To help you get started writing your Leadership Manifest, please follow my 3-step-guideline:

Step 1. What’s Your Vision for Impact?

What’s your Vision for Impact:

Let’s make [ X] happen to ensure [The Attractive End Result for the Company]

Tips:

• Your Vision for Impact must move the department/company towards a strategic goal.

• Is it unique enough? Would it also match a department in Føtex or PostNord? If yes, rethink.

Step 2. Define 3-5 Courageous Guiding Principles

A. To formulate a Guiding Principle, finish one of the following sentences:

• In my opinion, Doing [A] will lead to [B], or:

• Doing [A,] rather than doing [B], leads to [result]

This makes your principle a “Local Truth”, meaning that it is true to you now, and you do not compromise it.

Examples:

• Sharpening existing competencies is always the better choice.

• We must use better Data to Drive Stronger Decisions

• Deliver value early and often drives customer commitment.

• Rethinking “current way” must drive our innovation.

• Adress the pain of the unknown customer to drive growth.

Dare to formulate your own theory. Think big. Be bold. Be radical. Don’t defend. Don’t explain. *Define what’s true to you.

NB! Don’t give me generic fluffy values like “Respect is a part of a good working culture”… blah! I want to feel and sense what YOU can add to this organizational world.

Tip:

Your principles must

• Be actionable. Use verbs. (Innovation through digitalisation is NOT actionable, rather say: Add ChatGpT to process steps.

• Move your company toward a strategic goal the right way.

• Be brief.

Step 3. Give it a nice PowerPoint Layout

Craft a PowerPiont Template

• Slide 1: Your Ambition. Find a strong back ground photo that communicates your ambition.

• Slide 2: Leadership Principle 1. Add a background image.

• Slide 3: Leadership Principle 2. Add a background image.

• …. up to 5 principles.

Body Language Inspiration

When communicating, you serve your principles. You can use your body language to ground yourself, and create the feeling that you stand with your feet solidly grounded in your beliefs: