One way to think of the work of leadership is to figure out how to get people to choose to follow. A simple framework may help. It begins with the idea of values and ends with the principle of choice.

In between are the leader activities of explaining what the values do for us and showing what we have to do to make these important things happen. This framework can be called the Four Vs of leadership: values, vision, vectors, and voice.

Professor Matthew Fairholm, Department of Political Science, W. O. Farber Center for Civic Leadership, University of South Dakota, explains how to make the "four Vs" real in the January/February Public Management article, "The Work of Leadership."