In the fall of 1962, President John F. Kennedy spoke at Rice University about the nations young space program. A year earlier, in the first year of his presidency, Kennedy had pressed hard for huge expenditures for the program, and he had set a seemingly impossible goal: man would go to the moon by the end of the decade.

Rice University is in Houston, a place that was to be central to the space program, so it must have seemed like a good place to talk about why we were spending all this money on a project whose goals were more than a little obscure to many people at the time.

I re-read that speech every once in a while because its a fantastic example of how leadership can inspire and enlist others in a vision. On that day, President Kennedy didnt say a word about how we were going to get to the moonhe didnt know how. The technology, fuel, and communication necessary for such an undertaking had not yet been invented. Instead, he sketched out a vision of what he felt we needed to accomplish and why it was important:

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

I revisit the speech because it helps me better understand the role of the modern-day CEO, a person who is called on to enable others to deliver the goods to the board of directors, the shareholders, the customers, and other stakeholders. The best top executives do this with only one hand because the other is busy orchestrating a vision of the future, the kind of vision Kennedy talked about in his 1962 speech at Rice.

Short strategies, long vision

As Kennedys speech demonstrates, vision and leadership have always mattered. But those qualities are even more valuable today. One reason is that the half-life of any business strategy is much shorter than it used to be. Companies used to talk about the importance of good five-year plans; today, its difficult to follow a five-year plan because the rules of the game may change in less than half that time. And that reality has had an enormous impact on the way the professional development field is viewed.

Executives tend to be skeptical about the value of professional development training, tired of the flavor of the month approach. Many believe that people in the professional development field embrace one message one minute and something entirely different the next.

Im not offended when I hear that criticism because I think it contains an element of truth. The fact is, professional development tactics change frequently because the playing field changes so rapidly. We do change direction, and its because the way we do business changes so fast. That has become a simple reality in my business, but it is now a reality in every business.

One thing that doesnt change is the need for a clear and simple vision, a bottom-line directional view of the futurethe whys of business, if you will. Establishing that vision is one critical step; inspiring that vision is another. But those two steps wont ultimately matter much if the message doesnt get repeated, forcefully and frequently, to everyone up and down the organization. The process doesnt end at the point that the management team buys into the objective; the message has to become a drumbeat, a mantra that burrows itself into the entire organizations fabric.

Team members need to hear that drumbeat over and over again, until it becomes second nature behavior. Whatever the organization doesevery step, every initiative, every strategyhas to be aligned with that vision.

So when a CEO thinks about training for an organizations top executives, the emphasis must be on the kind of culture that will be required to turn the vision into something tangible. We shouldnt be simply seeking a smoother process or an up-tick in efficiency; instead, our focus must be on moving everyone in the same direction, and knowing why were going there.

If the training program really does its job well, it will also instill a serious dose of passion about the organizational vision and message. Inspiration is what its about, so lets not be afraid to inspire.

If top executives arent likely to benefit a great deal from conventional management training, and if the ground rules for visualizing the future keep changing, exactly what sort of training is likely to help people at the top run their companies? Here are some ideas:

Learn to inspire and enlist others in the vision.

You may have a very clear picture of where you want your company to go, but its going to be extremely difficult to get there if the other team members arent on board.

Exhibit passion, and demand it in others.

Any vision worth believing in should really matter, and it should generate a healthy dose of excitement. When you talk about your shared vision, the ground should tremble a little and your heart rate should go up. If it doesnt, somethings wrong.

Set the bar high.

Once people see the vision you describe, getting there may seem impossible. But if the shared vision really means something, people can do seemingly impossible things. And doing that together feels great.

Give people permission to challenge the process. People cant do things if they arent empowered to do them. Its not about thinking outside the box anymore; its about acting beyond the box. So empower them.

Set the stage.

Every organization has a culture. CEOs and executive leaders are the architects of the culture and contribute greatly to it whether they mean to or not. Since you are going to establish much of your companys culture anyway, model the way. Think about what you want the company culture to be, and make it so.

Communicate values.

Everything from the culture of the company to the feelings of self-esteem possessed by the employees spring from the values that the company embraces and cares about. And values come from the top.

The media loves to focus on colorful CEOs, and although some enjoy the attention, many of the best corporate leaders are people most of us have never heard of. The really good ones are those that take an active role in mentoring and coaching at every level of their business. Thats what creates good corporate cultures, and corporate cultures are what set the stage for success.