Leading with vision: Lesson from a Jr. High Speech

So what does it mean to lead with vision?  There is so much chatter about vision and the nature of vision.  There is even more chatter about leadership.  My son simplified it all for me this last week.  He ran for Student Body President of his Junior High.  His speech boiled everything down for me.  Vision for him was a hope for his school.  He brought to his speech a simple hope that his school would be a school that dared mighty things like reaching out to the community and making everyone feel included.  As I heard him speak, I realized that vision is simply an audacious hope for a group of people who have the potential to reach it.  Leadership is, then, empowering that group to get to the hope.

My son lost the election.  Will his hope die with it?  The hope does not have to die.   The potential for leadership is still alive as well.  His current question:  Will I hold on to that hope or let it die.  Too often we let our hopes die because we feel we "lost the election."  We talked to people about it and they didn't support us...we drew up the plan and it got shot down...we stepped out and nobody followed.  We could blame our spouses, kids, co-workers or neighbors for killing our vision but the truth is it is up to us to either let it die or continue to kindle it.

What hopes do you have for the groups you interact with?  What hopes will you kindle for your world?  Do you have a hope/vision for your family?  What is it?  Define it!  Think actively about how you might empower your family to step out to reach it.  The same question exists for all your areas of life.  Do you have a hope for your company, team at work, neighborhood or church?  That is the vision.  Now get busy living it out especially if you don't have the formal position expected to make it happen.  Even more emphatically, I say, step out and live the vision even when it seems no one is voting for you.