“A leader’s primary role is to see and shape the future.”
Mark Miller, VP for Organizational Effectiveness, Chick-fil-A
You are created, called, and equipped to influence others to see the vision, engage in it, and invest in it. Having a vision is often the easy part. As a visionary leader, you must articulate and communicate our vision in a way that’s clear and compelling. You must take the mystery out of what you are trying to do and where you are trying to go. A vision that is demystified and descriptive has the power to inform, influence, and inspire others.
Here are three concrete steps you can take to demystify your vision and empower others to move forward with you.
Step one: Clarify your convictions. The point of writing down your vision, mission, and core values is to capture and clarify your inner conviction. It’s certainly not to keep these documents lying around or hidden away on your website! As the leader of your ministry or organization, God has given you the conviction–and the faith–to do something, to lead the charge and facilitate change.
True conviction, like vision, is God-given. It’s not something we simply produce as the result of a brainstorming exercise. What is your deeply-held conviction; the one that led you to take action and step into leadership? How do you describe that?
“Your vision isn’t just a statement; it’s a picture of what you hope to see accomplished in the life of an individual person.”
Step two: Create a clear picture of your impact in one person’s life. Vision for a Christian leader is always about saving a life or changing a life. Instead of fixating on the vision statement, take time to write down a profile of your vision for the individual life.
To create a profile of your vision, begin by spelling it out clearly and concisely. Craft a series of bullet points. Who is this person we serve and impact? Who will he or she become if we’re effective in what we do in our organization? Take it a step further and find an actual picture of what their life will be like if you are successful. What images represent how you will serve, influence, and affect their life?
Step three: Clarify your mission statement and make sure it’s authentic. Your mission statement conveys the very heart of what you do. It describes how you are moving toward your vision. It clearly articulates who you serve, what you do, and how you do it. Look at this as the substance of your ministry: the people and the purpose.
Take time this week to revisit your mission statement. Does it answer these three questions:
- Who are we serving?
- What are we doing?
- How do we do it?
Then, make sure it’s authentic. Are you really doing these things? Are you really serving who you say you are? Is your language clear and meaningful? Don’t fill your mission statement with fluff and meaningless words. That’s hardly better than not having one at all! Your mission should make sense not only to the people in your organization, but also to anyone who reads it.
These three steps will help demystify your vision and bring the needed clarity to inspire your people to give their best to your cause. People crave simplicity, focus, and purpose. When these things are accessible to everyone on your team, you create alignment and together you’ll be empowered to move forward into everything God has in store for your ministry.
Take a moment to listen to or share my new podcast, Vision Unleashed with Zach Clark, on this very topic.
photo credit: Umberto Fistarol via photopin cc