How To Cast A Compelling Vision

What is vision? Vision is a critically important piece of any leadership plan. It is something you must create and share with your team over time.

Vision is a strong mental picture of what you would like to see you or your organization accomplish. Your vision could be:

  • To become the world’s most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline. – Southwest Air
  • To spread the power of optimism – Life Is Good
  • A just world without poverty – Oxfam
  • For clean water and fullness of life – Team World Vision
Man sitting and staring at a cloud covered expanse

Photo by Joshua Earle

Your vision statement can be long or short. For the examples above, I share 4 short vision statements. Each statement clearly communicates what the organization wants.

Your Employees Want To Know You Care

Caring isn’t a word you hear often in leadership. You hear more powerful words. You hear words like: Results, Return On Investment, Strengths, Action-orientated, and more.

The words you often hear in leadership have to do with getting results and taking action. They make you think of doing something powerful.

man and woman hugging against a cloudy background

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez

I’ve learned one of the most powerful things you can do as a leader is to show care. You, the leader, need to let your team members know you care about them.

Your Employees Want To Know You Care

I’ve experienced this first-hand multiple times. My father is getting up there in age. He’s currently 92 years old.

I’ve shared a little about my dad previously on this blog. You can find that article here. He’s a manly man who has had trouble with his health over the last couple of years.

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Midnight Special

A Reel Leadership Article

I recently checked out the movie Midnight Special because of an article on Inverse. The article stated Midnight Special was the most underrated sci-fi movie on Netflix (also available on Amazon Video). This statement piqued my interest, so I added it to my Netflix watchlist.

I’m glad I did. Midnight Special told a strange but touching story of a father and son on the run as they try to save his life.

Jaeden Martell in Midnight Special as Alton Meyer

Alton (Jaeden Martell) is a special young man. There’s something wrong with him and he needs to get to a specific location by a specific date. His father, Roy (Michael Shannon), believes his son and kidnaps him from the cult he’d been living with.

Along with Roy, Lucas (Joel Edgerton) is helping them flee. Sarah (Kirsten Dunst) is Alton’s mom and eventually joins them on their crusade.

Help Your Team To Thrive

Leaders have a really cool opportunity to help their team members in a way many other people cannot. Leaders are able to help their team members realize and thrive in their zones of brilliance.

I was reminded of this because of something our church does. The Assemblies Of God have a program called Fine Arts.

Man riding a black Harley Davidson motorcycle

Photo from Unsplash

Fine Arts is a program to help students discover, develop, and deploy their talents. It’s an amazing program that has helped launch students on a course they never thought possible.

Fine Arts allows students to perform in multiple areas of interest. Some of the areas students can perform are:

It is amazing to see our students get excited and perform in the categories that bring them alive. I’ve seen shy students crush a short sermon or come alive singing a vocal solo. This year, we saw students in our youth group perform comedy, exhibit photography and videos, and worship together as a worship group.

When Your Well Runs Dry

Lately, I’ve felt uninspired. What used to drive me to write has left me feeling empty and dry. I think my well is close to empty. My well is dry.

Authors, content creators, leaders, and more have a well they go to. This well helps them find new content and ideas to present to their audiences and teams.

Empty wooden brick well

Photo by Maria Krasnova

Sometimes, these wells run dry. You hit writer’s block. You hit an inspiration block.

There are hours, days, weeks, even years where you may not feel the desire to keep doing what you have done for as long as you can remember. Writing feels mundane. New content isn’t coming easily. Or you don’t know where to direct your organization to go.

It sucks… But it doesn’t have to be the end of what you love to do.