As museums grapple with the complexity of a social, political and economic change in the communities they serve, visionary leadership of these institutions becomes critically important. While there are many approaches to how such leadership is defined and achieved, in its most fundamental terms, it begins with a keen understanding of why an individual has chosen the museum field as their life’s work in the first place. In this talk, Barclay explores the relationship between personal vision and institutional vision and how the two define the most successful leaders working today.