At the leadership class in MBA school, one of the first things we do i s ask the students to distinguish leaders from managers. Inevitably, the students -- some of them already experienced managers -- come up with statements like "Managers take care of maintaining  status quo; leaders focus on defining vision and leading people towards that vision."

One good example of leadership vision is Barack Obama's acceptance speech (transcript). It wasn't just a plan to get along with the difficulties that North Americans are now facing. It defined a vision of the future: lower taxes for the disadvantaged, better education and health care, bold policies on research and development for alternative sources of energy. It would be difficult not to be moved by the speech. Obama would have been called a communist had this been in the 1950s.

Tonight, tonight, I say to the people of America, to Democrats and Republicans and independents across this great land: Enough. This moment, this election is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive.

By defining a vision of the future, Obama has changed the game -- something that past democratic candidates had not been able to articulate and do in past campaigns.

This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.

We're a better country than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment that he's worked on for 20 years and watch as it's shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.

We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty...

Republicans used to set the pace and Democrats would be reactive. So far, all that McCain has done has been reactive: Palin's selection, which shows that for McCain, it's more important to win the elections than to define vision. Deep down, we see that inexperienced Palin contradicts McCain's recurring tirade against Obama's lack of experience.

Times will be difficult for Obama because opposition will now criticize whether his vision can be done or not -- something that traditional managers often do. "The vision is not practical." "It will be too expensive." "Come on, get real!" Creativity guru Roger von Oech refers to these sorts of criticisms as mental locks -- obstacles that prevent us from dreaming new things and working to achieve them. 

What will carry a leader through in these times of opposition is conviction and optimism. Just believing it can be done will work wonders. Conviction then leads to the next important trait of a leader: optimism. Optimism will carry advocates through even during the times that everyone else question their sanity.

It will be difficult to predict who will become the next President of the US, but one thing is sure.

The coming elections is defining moment in human history, and a choice for a fresh start for world built on peace, compassion and abundance, or to go on with war, hatred and scarcity. The US, being the world power that it is, can make that change.