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The author of Anticipate is Rob-Jan de Jong.

Management & Leadership

Anticipate Book Summary - Anticipate Book explained in key points

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Anticipate summary

Name: Anticipate
Rating: 4.4 (39 reviews)
Author: Rob-Jan de Jong

Rob-Jan de Jong

The Art of Leading By Looking Ahead

4.4 (39 ratings)

15 mins

Brief summary

'Anticipate' by Rob-Jan de Jong is a practical guide that provides insights into creating a mindset to anticipate future trends, seize opportunities, and manage uncertainties with clarity and confidence.

Topics

Leadership Inspiration Strategy Western Philosophy

Table of Contents

Anticipate
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Discover the skills needed to become a visionary leader.

When it comes to election time, how do the best politicians convince us to vote for them? They display a clear vision of how they will lead us into a better future, and they use speeches and manifestos to persuade us.

Usually it works. After all, who would you want to follow: someone with a clear idea of the future, or someone stuck in the past?

Not surprisingly, vision can also be used in the business world. Leaders who anticipate future business trends, position their companies accordingly and then persuade others to follow suit have a great chance of succeeding. But how do you develop this vision? These blinks will show you how.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why, despite its success, many Amazon shareholders are unhappy with their lot; and
why you can develop your vision by writing your own obituary.

Great vision consists of three elements, two of which are Logos and Pathos.

We all know that a good leader is someone with vision – it’s something you hear all the time in business today. But the concept of vision in this context actually dates back to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle.

In his book On Rhetoric, Aristotle identified three principles that are vital for a leader to have vision: logos, pathos and ethos. For a better understanding of how these principles come together, it’s important to take a closer look at the first two, starting with logos.

You might have noticed that logos sounds a little like “logic,” and it’s for a reason. Logos refers to the ability to examine a situation and come up with a logical strategy to achieve positive outcomes in the future – something every good leader requires!

We find a great display of logos in the vision of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who was responsible for turning Dubai into a high-end tourism and finance hub. He arrived at his vision by analyzing Dubai’s situation. He recognized that its revenue relied on oil exports, a finite resource that clearly won’t last forever, and developed a strategy with the goal of long-term prosperity.

Logos will help you construct your vision, but it alone won’t help you achieve it. Every leader needs his supporters, and that’s why logos needs pathos to work alongside it.

Pathos describes the ability of a leader to win people over by appealing to their emotions.

Take IKEA’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad. He portrayed his vision as a fight against unfairness, as only a wealthy few could afford stylish, functional and well-designed furniture. Through the slogan “You do a little, we do a little and together we save a lot,” IKEA also promotes togetherness. In this way, IKEA turned their vision into a noble cause, garnering the support that makes them a household name today!

The third key aspect of visionary leadership is ethos.

We now know that great vision necessitates both a logical and an emotional side. But there is one more principle that Aristotle describes: Ethos, the personal credibility of the leader. So what makes ethos vital in leadership?

People often don’t like the idea of change, which can make a leader’s task of gaining their trust quite tough. In fact, unless they display personal integrity, they’ll have a hard time gaining any trust at all.

Stay ahead of trends to develop winning strategies.

Rationality, emotions and credibility are what make a great vision. But a great vision is of no use if leaders don’t have the skills to act upon it quickly.

Imagine your vision existing along a timeline between two points. The first is the point of surprise, which is when you discover a new and original idea. The second is the point of no return, when everyone has figured out that same idea and you lose your competitive advantage.

Keep your strategies flexible and expect the unexpected.

Making your vision concrete will keep you on track as you work toward it. But this certainly doesn’t mean that you should stick to it uncompromisingly.

Consider the story of Alan Greenspan, one of the most vocal advocates for financial deregulation and free markets. As the chairman of the US Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, his desire to create a booming free-market economy led to a drop in interest rates in 2004.

A great leader embodies his vision in every action.

As we learned in the second blink, a visionary leader must be credible, or, in other words, possess ethos. In this blink we’ll investigate this principle further, in order to find out what it really means to walk the talk as a leader.

Would you follow a leader who says one thing and does another? Of course not – you wouldn’t support someone’s strategy if it’s clear that they themselves don’t believe in it. As a leader, it’s vital that you reflect authenticity. You can achieve this by communicating a love for what you do in each of your actions.

Train your leadership abilities by learning to listen and question.

Despite common perceptions, leadership isn’t just something that you’re born with. As we’ve seen, it comprises many different elements, and is based on skills that we can practice. Two of these skills are particularly important in developing leadership abilities.

Learning to listen is the first of these techniques, and it applies a skill that we often undervalue. Think about it: How often do you jump in to express your own opinion when listening to someone else’s? This is no way to build supportive relationships!

Draw people to your vision with the power of language.

With a well-rounded vision and solid interpersonal skills, you’re well on your way to becoming an effective leader. But there’s still one more skill you’ll need to practice: communication.

Any leader should be able to communicate the core of his vision in two to three minutes, tops. And that’s without the help of a slide-based presentation! Being as succinct as possible will demonstrate your clarity of thought to your audience, and will impress them too.

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What is Anticipate about?

Anticipate (2015) reveals what it takes to become a visionary leader. From Aristotle’s three pillars of leadership to practices and mindsets that strengthen your leadership abilities, these blinks show that having a vision isn’t something you’re born with – it’s something you work at.

Anticipate Review

Anticipate (2015) by Rob-Jan de Jong is a thought-provoking book that explores how to develop the mindset required to thrive in an uncertain future. Here are three reasons why this book is worth reading:

It offers strategies and techniques to help individuals and organizations adapt to change and leverage uncertainty as an opportunity.
By drawing on real-world examples, the book brings abstract concepts to life, making it highly relatable and practical.
Through its insightful analysis, the book challenges traditional thinking and provides fresh perspectives on how to navigate uncertainty, making it far from boring.

Best quote from Anticipate

Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans. - John Lennon

—Rob-Jan de Jong

Who should read Anticipate?

Ambitious types who want to know what it takes to be a visionary leader
Those in influential positions hoping to brush up on their leadership skills

About the Author

Rob-Jan de Jong is a consultant, educator and speaker in leadership development. His clients include TotalOil, ING, Phillips and other organizations and business schools worldwide. Anticipate marks his debut as an author.

Categories with Anticipate

Management & Leadership Entrepreneurship

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