LEADERSHIP EMPOWERMENT: Equipping Leaders to Succeed

THE POWER OF VISION
By Dr. Juliana King, PhD
Feb 2015

Vision is the power that propels a leader’s assignment to become a reality. A vision becomes powerless if the bearer looses the ability to visualize clearly. The success of leadership in Christendom or in the secular world is tantamount to clear vision.

My philosophy states, “show me a successful leader and I will show you a leader with a clear vision.”

The inability to have clear vision has challenged many leaders today. Why? The desire to be a leader is a good thing. The Bible states that he who desires the office of a bishop or any office desires a good thing. There are conditions attached to this desire. If you are a believer with the calling of God upon your life, God will remove the scales from your eyes, heal your spiritual blindness, and give you a vision. Paul is an example of this illustration (Acts 9: 1-18). I believe that every good vision comes from God, but all assignments are not given by God. Leadership success is based on the understanding of the meaning of the word vision. Vision means:

1. The faculty of sight.
2. Unusual ability in foreseeing what is going to happen in the future.
3. A mental image created by the imagination.
4. The mystical experience of seeing as if with the eyes of a supernatural being (Webster dictionary)

I believe that vision is the ability to have spiritual insight that translates into physical reality. The question becomes what are you seeing? What mental picture and image of yourself are you seeing? What are you seeing now? What are you seeing one year from now? What are you seeing five years from now? Are you seeing little pictures or large images? Have you become comfortable with what life has placed before you that you lose sight of the large pictures in front of you? This is a personal question for you to answer.

God gave Noah a vision to build an ark made of Gopher wood and the specification of how to build the ark and the materials to use for the construction of the ark. Noah was obedient to the word of God and as a result, the Holy Spirit brought in the souls that needed to be saved. That is a leader with clear vision. (Genesis 6:14-22, Genesis 7:1-10). What vision has God given to you regarding your ministry or organization? Your vision need to go beyond your present circumstances to that which exists in the spirit realm. For example, you might have only 10 members now, but you have a vision of preaching to an audience of 50,000. You have waited and sought the purpose of God through prayers, fasting and hard work for over ten years, and the vision seems stagnated and has not progressed to the next level. You have clearly communicated the vision to people to support and run with it, but no one seems to be influenced to buy into the vision. Sometimes God allows your ministry to be stagnated until certain issues in your life are properly structured. On the other hand, God might not be telling you to open a church or whatever venture that you have under taken. He might be telling you to be a traveling evangelist, a teacher, a healing minister, or to serve in a ministry. If any of the above is not your case, have you assessed your vision and your method of operation? You might discover that your methodology is wrong. God gives some visions in parts. I believe that if a vision is fully unveiled by God, some leaders might be overwhelmed. For example, God might give you a vision to start teaching a bible class. This might be preparation for a teaching ministry in the future. It is very important that you stay within the parameters of your vision until God expands your borders as you become faithful in the little.
Nehemiah had a clear vision. His vision did not come to pass without a battle. You might be saying to yourself, “I have fought and defeated all spiritual warfare in prayers; I have crossed the fire and came out untouched; what is keeping my vision plateau?” The following issues might be your problem:

VISION EVALUATION CRITERIA
1. The vision statement should echo the church or organization vision statement.
2. The vision should be remembered by the participants or your area of influence.
3. The vision needs to maintain a long-term destiny.

All leadership needs to understand that the vision is the stated destiny of the organization because it defines the general flow of priority of activities.

THE POWER AMPS OF A VISION
1. Mission Statement
2. Philosophy
3. Strategy, and
4. Goals

A vision should have a measurable mission statement that is clear and specific. The mission may be flexible to create maximum growth and easily remembered. Your vision will have a philosophy and values that are unchangeable and non-negotiable to effectively carry out the mission statement. A good and well designed strategy will be in place to achieve the mission statement. For the strategy to be effective the following needs to take place:

1. A long-term plan.
2. Values that do not violate the vision philosophy in any way.
3. Clear plan for communication both internal and external.
4. Clear plan for evaluation checkpoints and feedbacks.
5. Clear plan for how and when quality improvements are made.

The vision should include clear measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goals. The goals will be a reflection of the strategic plan of the vision. The goals have to be accomplished within the time frame along with the money, people, etc. that are available.

A vision bearer is the vision caster and will always have the mental picture of the vision in sight. One thing is to have a vision and another thing is to have the capability to run with the vision. The vision will always empower her caster to run until a destination is reached.