VISION:  Taking IT To The NEXT Level

VALUING YOUR VISION

It is that time of the year.   Let’s THINK about VISION.

Where will you be, where will your organization be a year from now?  What will you do to take IT to the NEXT level?

Without vision, leaders find themselves and their organizations going nowhere fast. But a good vision can be the roadmap to an organization’s successful destination.

There’s no doubt that vision is valuable to a leader.  But how valuable is it to you?

Sometimes it’s easy to underestimate the value of vision until you are reminded of all that it can do for you and your organization.

NEXT LEVEL THINKING

N – Navigate Life’s Path from the source of Wisdom

E – Enhance my God time

X – eXperience life with Jesus and His body the church

T – Transform my thinking towards God and others

L – Learning as a way of Life

E – Expand my life – not my comfort zone

V – Volunteering my life to something that will outlast it

E – Encourage others to elevate their spiritual walk

L – Lift up my giving (time and money)

  1. VISION CHALLENGES PEOPLE. Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid, said, “Teach your people to feel that the vision is very important and nearly impossible.  That draws out the drive, in winners.”  A vision doesn’t look at the available resources and ask what can be done with them.  It sees the potential and issues the challenge. Then people rally to make it happen.

  1. VISION SOLVES PROBLEMS. Problems go unsolved not because they are too big, but because a leader’s vision is too small.  If a problem is bigger than your dreams, it will stop you.  But if your vision is greater, you will find a way to overcome it.  You’ve probably heard it said that obstacles are the things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.  If your vision is clear, problems are only speed bumps on the road to success.

  1. VISION PROVIDES GUIDANCE. Direction for an organization cannot be given through rules or organizational charts.  Those types of things merely facilitate direction.  True direction is birthed in the leader’s vision.

  1. VISION ATTRACTS WINNERS. A Prime Minister of France once said, “If you are doing big things, you attract big people.  If you are doing little things, you attract little people.”  The scope of your vision determines the stature of your people.

  1. VISION UNITES PEOPLE. There are differences and diversity in any organization.  But dissimilar people will be united under a common vision when the vision is greater than their desire to go their own way.

EVALUATING YOUR VISION

Duke Ellington, the late jazz musician, composer, and renowned band leader, was once asked to provide a definition of rhythm.  “If you got it,” he replied, “You don’t need no definition.  And if you don’t have it, ain’t no definition gonna help.”

Fortunately, vision is not quite as elusive.  Ellington’s definition can be adapted slightly to help us understand one reality regarding vision: When you have one, you know it, but when you don’t have one, you aren’t even sure what it will be like.

To determine whether you have a vision that’s worth pursuing, consider the following list of characteristics of a true vision:

A true vision is . . .

 

  1. INSEPARABLE FROM THE LEADER. A true vision will reflect the leader’s most basic values and beliefs.  If it does not, the leader cannot share the vision to his or her people with integrity and expect that they will share in carrying it out.  Vision is a picture fully painted that produces passion in you AND in those around you.

  1. EMPOWERING. The leader with vision believes not only that it can be done, but that it must be done.  And that confidence will spill over to the people who will share the work of the vision.  If a vision does not instill confidence, it will not inspire a following.

  1. CLEAR. A vision must be a clear picture. The clarity test is whether the followers can articulate the vision to one another.

  1. LONG TERM. A vision must contain a clear destination, but one that demands development over time.

  1. PEOPLE ORIENTED. A worthy vision comes from the heart of the leader and bears the fingerprints of the people.

  1. FUTURISTIC. A vision is a mental picture of what tomorrow will look like.  Visionaries develop present resources as a platform for tomorrow.  They constantly draw the destination but carefully detail the journey.

Dissatisfaction and discouragement are not caused by the absence of things but the absence of vision.

“The empires of the future are empires of the mind.” – Winston Churchill

“Big thinking precedes great achievement.” – Wilferd Peterson

“The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.” – John Sculley

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” – Warren Bennis