International Journal of Servant-Leadership
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to discuss how foresight fuels vision and is deployed through narrative leadership. The underlying premise is Greenleaf's observation that servant-leaders simultaneously "know the unknowable" and "foresee the unforeseeable" (Greenleaf 2003, 50). In his writing, intellection, imagination, and insight constitute foresight and fuel vision. Similarly, Sashkin (2004) asserted that leader visions are both mentally and behaviorally constructed. I support both Greenleaf's and Sashkin's claims by outlining how mental construction of vision is achieved through foresight and how the behavioral construction of vision is achieved through narrative leadership. I pursue this argument by ( l) summarizing the role of vision in the transformational leadership literature; (2) linking the transformational leadership description of vision to Robert Greenleaf's conception of foresight; (3) introducing narrative leadership and discussing its role in foresight; (4) using a Nobel Peace Prize lecture to demonstrate the connected nature of foresight, vision, and narrative; and (5) recommending resources to support leader practice.
Recommended Citation
Matesi, Lyna M.
(2013)
"The Significance of Foresight in Vision and Narrative Leadership,"
International Journal of Servant-Leadership: Vol. 8, Article 8.
DOI: 10.33972/ijsl.133
Available at:
https://repository.gonzaga.edu/ijsl/vol8/iss1/8
Copyright Information
Copyright 2013 The Author(s). All rights reserved