Vision

Regarding my last post, I made a decision to stay as I am in my current position at work and not to pursue the management position that was presented to me. I felt it wasn't the right position for me because 1) i lacked vision and passion for the feature I would be managing and then as a result of that 2) i didn't feel it would be fair to the people i would be managing if i didn't have a vision to lead them towards. Yes, perhaps the vision could be developed over time but I really wasn't interested in the feature ( perhaps passionately uninterested...) so i thought that it would be better in the hands of someone who really wanted to take that on. It would have been selfish to accept the offer knowing the only reason was for personal career gain. after rejecting the offer, this concept of vision has stuck around in my head. i'm certainly no expert but I started to think about what type of leader made it easy to follow or what type of manager was easy to work for in the past.

I've never really noticed how important it is for a leader to have vision until I reflect back and distinguish poor leaders from great leaders in my life. Great leaders always had a very clear, defined vision they are working towards. And not only was it crisp and clear in their minds, if you mentioned that vision or touched upon it in conversation, they could talk very fervently for hours about it. All their decisions were made simple because everything was directed towards this vision. While they speak of their vision, they also have this ability to arouse passion in the people they speak to. It becomes contagious -- great leaders\managers in the past were able to share their vision with me and help me make it my vision as well. After all, who wants to follow someone who has no direction? Or who wants to follow someone whose only interest is to make their own vision come true, treating the people who come alongside them as a means to an end?

And just as important to having vision is to communicate that vision all the time. The best managers I have had in the past reminded me constantly why I was doing what I was doing. They would help me look at the grand scheme of things - how does my small seemingly insignificant task at work fit into the bigger product or my career as a whole? When the work gets tough, it's so easy to lose sight of the vision and to start to wonder, why was I so pumped up about this again? The work is hard, the job satisfaction so low, there is no end in sight! And right about this time, is when a reminder of the vision comes in handy to reinspire and refocus.

Just as this is important in the workplace, I believe it also important outside the workplace. As I witnessed this weekend at church, the leadership team lacked communication in a million dollar fundraising project for a new building. many people didn't know the project was for a new building -- how can that be? the vision for the project was to enable the church to grow and to provide a place where God could continue to work in that community. was this vision communicated by the leaders to their people? nope -- or if it was, it seems it wasn't communicated very well.

within the family, the husband is the head of the household and the wife, his helper and supporter. I try to observe Godly families whenever i can -- the families that seem to make their marriage and family work in a way that glorifies God and maybe the one thing that sticks out time and again is that the husband has a vision for his family which he has communicated with his wife. they have prayed it over before God and confirmed together that this is the direction God has for them as a family. And then everything they do together, the plans they make for their future, how they raise their children, gets everyone on board and focused to work towards that vision.

anyway, just my thoughts on the subject...