Driven By Time

by Peg Thomas
Praeger, 2004

    The main focus of Driven By Time, by Peg Thomas is the idea or temporal alignment, or time orientation.  She argues that leaders each possess and individual, dispositional orientation towards time, being either past-oriented, present-oriented, or future-oriented.  While many people have a primary orientation, it is important to be able to use all orientations effectively.  Leaders are constantly called upon to consider each the past, present and the future in the daily actions and behaviors.  Different situations may call for different time orientations. 

    Future-oriented leaders are visionary in their approach, and looks for trends and opportunities to transform.  They try to motivate followers and draw them into the future with them.  They however may struggle when it comes to the past or everyday operations.  They are often impatient with other who may not understand their visions if they themselves are not future oriented.

    Present-oriented leaders are more day to day.  They tend to take on tasks as they come, and solve current problems.  While present-oriented leaders may be best able to adapt to future-oriented or past-oriented tasks, they may still struggle in seeing the future or planning.  They also may have trouble dealing with change.

    Past-oriented leaders excel at learning from the past, and remembering what happened in the past.  The may be able to predict future trends based on past situations, however they are often uncomfortable dealing with or talking about the future.  They are often not visionary and reluctant to change.

    Thomas suggests, that while no one orientation is inherently better than the others, a future-orientation may be particularly useful in American organizations.  Despite this many of the people in US organizations are not future-oriented.  She therefore gives several suggestions that can help people to be more future-oriented.  These include: forcing oneself to be more future-oriented, using goal setting, learning to be optimistic, spending time with future-oriented people, and keeping focus on the future.  Thomas then gives several examples of ordinary leaders who are future oriented, telling short stories about their experiences.  She does the same for past-oriented and present oriented leaders.

    Visioning is one of the most important parts of future-oriented leadership, according to Thomas, and one which every leader should develop.  She defines a vision as "A cognitive image of the future that is positive enough to followers that it is motivating and elaborate enough that it provides direction for future planning and goal setting".  Visioning may work for a number of reasons.  It may motivate people, it may create a self-fulfilling prophecy, it can develop commitment, and it can guide planning and behavior. 

    Finally, Thomas offers a few time orientation related tips for leaders.

    1.  Develop a vision of the future.

    2.  Surround yourself with a diverse group of people in terms of time orientation.

    3.  Value the past and learn from it.

    4.  Realize that most people are not future-oriented.

    5.  Value the strengths of your temporal alignment and those of others, but be aware of weaknesses.

    6.  Learn more about personality and individual differences.

 Competencies Addressed: 

~ Contributed by Aaron Stehura

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