Communities are future seeking. But first, they must be able to imagine and decide what they want the future to be. Secondly, they must decide how they are going to make this desired future become a reality. Strategic leadership is a process that brings people together to think about the future, create a vision, and invent ways to make this future happen through determination, community teamwork, and disciplined actions. It is the primary function of leadership - to make things happen that would not happen otherwise and prevent things from happening that might occur ordinarily. It is getting people to work together to achieve common goals and aspirations; to transform visions into reality.
A strategic plan is a document recording what people think - a broad blueprint for positive change that defines a vision and key outcomes that must occur to attain this vision. Other implementation efforts and plans such as the comprehensive land use plan, financial plans, and development and redevelopment plans are policy- and decision-making tools that assist the community, council, and administration in achieving the vision.
A strategic leadership perspective and plan will challenge and stretch the community's imagination in defining what is possible and test its will to commit to a great and exciting, rather than "good enough" future. The strategic plan will forge and sustain the critical partnerships and relationships that will translate the strategic plan into reality.
This strategic plan is a compass - a dynamic and continuous process about how a community sees, thinks about, and creates, through decisive leadership and management commitment and actions, the future it desires. It defines the long-term "big picture" framework within which all policy, fiscal, administrative, and tactical decisions need to occur. It focuses the governing body on defining ends and results to be achieved and the management team on the means necessary to achieve those ends and results.
