In our series looking at leadership attributes, we now look at vision. Why do people follow a leader? Most likely it is because that leader has cast a compelling vision for making things better for them personally, and possibly also for the common good. A good leader convinces people that they will be able to bring the vision to fruition, and have successfully influenced others to follow them.
Leadership is about moving an organization (church, business, country, etc.) forward, improving them, and making things better. Harry Reeder in his book 3D Leadership: Defining, Developing and Deploying Christian Leaders Who Can Change the World, defines leadership as a leader influencing others to effectively achieve a defined mission together. John Maxwell famously goes even further and states that “Leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less”. The way to influence others to follow you to is develop and communicate (or cast) a compelling vision. Continue reading
One of my favorite John Maxwell quotes (though he certainly wasn’t the first to say it) is “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” I love the quote and have repeated it often to those I mentor over the years. This statement is true in many walks of life, as a friend, pastor, mentor, politician, etc. In this article, I want to look at what this means between a leader and their team members. Teams generally aren’t going to be impressed with a leader’s prior experience, results, reputation and advanced degrees until they are convinced that the leader cares about them as an individual. What are some ways that a leader shows their followers that they care about them? Here are 4 ways: 
Many of us are extremely busy in our jobs, callings and vocations. But being busy is not the same as being productive. In the Fortune 50 organization that I worked at for my nearly 38-year career, we would often talk about “results, not activities”. One of the first times I heard this was after turning in my comments for my mid-year review of my goals. That task was always one of my least favorite to do, and I was always happy to get it done. Unfortunately, on one occasion, shortly after turning in my mid-year document to my leader, she returned with it all marked up in red ink. She handed it back to me and said that I had listed a lot of activities. What I needed to do was show results.
If you are a leader, I highly recommend that you read this book –The Leader’s Greatest Return: Attracting, Developing, and Multiplying Leaders by John Maxwell. 
The subject of our calling is one of great interest to me. I enjoy reading about calling and helping others to pursue their calling. I’ve read a few books about calling, the best of which have been by Jeff Goins (The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do), Bob Smart (Calling to Christ: Where’s My Place) and Os Guinness (The Call: Finding and Fulfilling God’s Purpose For Your Life). In his book Leadershift: 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace, John Maxwell includes a chapter on calling titled “Career to Calling: The Passion Shift”. This was my favorite chapter in an excellent book. I want to share 10 great quotes on Maxwell’s chapter on calling:
