BLOG: Leadership Insights

Get Email Updates

The Power of Idealistic-Realism: How Great Leaders Inspire and Transform

March 9, 2012

On April 1st, 2011, Douglas Conant’s article on The Power of Idealistic-Realism was published on www.HBR.org.

“An idealistic vision is what motivates all of us,” writes Douglas, who will be joining us next week, on Tuesday, March 13, for a live broadcast followed by an interactive Q&A session on TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments.

Several years before I came to Campbell I worked for the CEO of Nabisco as part of his executive team. He asked his direct reports to confidentially take a test designed to provide insight into our ways of thinking. The test results identified me as an “Idealist-Realist.” I’ve used this term as a touchstone time and again over the years because it is such an apt description of my core leadership philosophy. Over my career, I have found that idealism and realism are the two leadership attributes that truly inspire and mobilize people.

 To read the full article, click here.

Dark haired woman watches from audience of conference event

Women in Leadership Institute

NOV. 13–16, 2023 | Orlando, Florida, or Virtual
A 4-day immersive learning experience designed to equip women leaders with actionable strategies to overcome the hurdles women often face in the workplace.

Posted In

Blog

Enrich Your inbox

with timely, relevant leadership insights

Join more than 15,000 others and subscribe to Linkage Leadership Insights: your resource for leadership development-related topics that matter to you, from the advancement of women leaders to diversity and inclusion and purposeful leadership. Plus, get all the latest Linkage news delivered to your inbox.

Related Posts

All Insights

Start Your Journey

Speak with a Linkage expert today