Our lives are generally divided into components essential to the whole of life.  When approaching the subject of leadership, just as there are essential components to life, we find certain components essential to the success of our growth as leaders.  There are four essentials to life; water, sun, enzymes and air.  These essentials align themselves beautifully to the essentials of leadership.

We have already discussed how water is essential to life.  As water supplies the substance of life, so character supplies the very substance of our leadership.  Character is the very core of leadership.   Character is essential to our development as leaders.  However, water / character only provide one essential component.

A second essential to life is the sun.  Without the sun, life would be impossible.  The sun provides benefits to all life, as well as, all of life. One of the most important benefits is light.  Light enables us to see where we are going.  I once toured the Cave of the Winds near Colorado Springs.  The guide took the group to an area in the cave where the lights were suddenly turned off.  I cannot remember ever experiencing anything like that moment.  I could not see the movement of my hand in front of my face…with my eyes open.  It was frightening.  Everyone was afraid to move.  The guide said, “if you remain in this type of darkness for 30 days you will go blind and if you remain in this darkness for 90 days, you will go mad.”  I learned quickly how light enables us to see our direction.

As essential as the sun is for life, so “vision” is to leadership.  The consequences of not having vision can be seen in the words of Solomon, “where there is no vision, the people perish” (Pro. 29:18).

In leadership, vision has been defined as “the art of seeing the invisible.  In this respect, vision is not just seeing, it is not just “sight.” Instead, vision is insight. It is the ability to see something that only you can see, something that others do not see because this something does not have a physical reality.  It is something you see in your mind’s eye, something that exists in your imagination, something that is within yourself” Alain Briot.

The essential nature of vision has been expressed by the President of the University of Notre Dame, Theodore Hesburgh.  He said “the very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion.”

Based on the ideas presented by Briot and Hesburgh, we can say, leadership vision is more than the ability to know the direction.  Vision is knowing the direction and the ability to communicate the direction in such a way others can see, and aspire to achieve in a united effort.  Perhaps this explains why Hanz Finzel describes how the “higher one is in leadership, the more their work is about the future.”

Vision sees the future and speaks as if present.

Vision provides purpose and direction.

Vision drives the actions of life.

Vision powers enthusiasm and commitment.

Vision challenges followers to do something great.

Vision is essential to the success of leadership.  Describing the essential nature of vision is not the challenge.  The challenge is “how” can vision be developed?

1.  Developing vision begins with a self-examination.  Know who you are and who you want to be.

2.  Learn from leaders who have vision.  Spend as much time as possible with leaders who have demonstrated vision.

3.  Establish a vision that is concrete.  Abstract ideas can lead to “fuzzy” leadership.

4.  Be committed to give the time and energy to see it through.

5.  To complete the process, share it with others.  Vision can only be fully realized when others can see it and share in it.

Several years ago I learned about four essentials to life: water, sun, enzymes and air.  Each part plays a very significant role in our ability to survive on this earth.  Based on these essentials to life I began to consider parallels to leadership.  I have read several books, articles and website posts dealing with hundreds of ideas surrounding leadership.  Perhaps you are familiar with the laws, principles, qualities and challenges mentioned in one way or another.  Hundreds of great ideas have been presented in an attempt to help develop leaders.

After reading much of the material available, I began to reason, why not narrow it down to just the essentials?  Is it possible to take the bulk of the ideas available and really come up with four areas about leadership to help develop the type of leaders needed today?  With this in mind, I began to consider the four essentials to life and how they might line up with four essentials to leadership.  I wanted to find four essentials worth investing into successful leadership.  It was time to intensify the study and begin to cut away the baggage to really focus on the bottom line.  Corporately, it would be considered making it “lean.”

The result of the research, discussion with other leaders, much prayer and thought, will be the subject of The Leadership Fund for the next few weeks.  Each post will deal with the essentials of life and leadership beginning with “water.”  A little research quickly reveals how vital water is to life. One website narrowed the value of water to one simple statement, “where there is water, there is life,”.  Not only is the earth mostly water, so is our physical body. Consider how 60% of the body, 70% of the brain, 90% of the lungs and 83% of cells is made up of water.  It could easily be said that water is the very substance of life.

Just as water is the substance of life,  “character” is the substance of leadership.  Where there is character, there is leadership. Scripture would indicate character is more than words, as David writes in the Psalms, “O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill?  He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart,” (Ps. 15:1-2).  David uses three words to describe the action of character: “walks, works, and speaks.”  Character puts words into action.  To quote Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner in The Leadership Challenge, “the video needs to match the audio.”

Since character is indicated by action, the conclusion, as stated in John Maxwell’s 21 Indispensable Qualities of Leadership, “talent is a gift, but character is a choice.”   Character is indicated by the actions created from the choices we make.  With each choice, character is developed.  Everyone is aware of leaders who have great natural ability, talent to influence hundreds, thousands, even millions of people. Consider the talent of a professional athlete like Tiger Woods.  His talent is beyond what many could only dream to possess.  However, recent events in his life have shown flaws in his character.  His immoral indiscretion has damaged his influence and revealed volumes about his character.

The essential foundation to developing leadership involves character.  While I am not one to put stock in fortune cookies, about a year ago I found one very interesting.  It said, “God gives us one face and we make for ourselves another.”  To understand the essential nature of character to leadership, it should be mentioned that true character must be defined as being trustworthy.  How can this type of character be developed?  Consider the need to apply three specific areas.

First, before making any decision consider Suzy Welch’s “10-10-10 principle.” The principle involves asking the following questions: Can I live with this decision/choice 10 minutes from now?  Can I live with this decision/choice 10 months from now?  Can I live with this decision/choice 10 years from now?  Often times, it is easy to answer the first and second questions.  However, few ask the third question and answer honestly without considering the outcome of the present choice.

Second, take inventory of our values.  Solomon wrote, “a good name is to be more desired than great wealth,” (Pro. 22:1).  What is more valuable, character or achievement?  Character or money?  Character or popularity?

Third, strive for consistency. Hypocrisy destroys character.  Our word must be our bond.  Jesus taught the need for us to let our yes mean yes and our no mean no.  Our character on the job, at home, with neighbors, in the community, or around Christians should be the same.  The type of language we use, the attitudes we demonstrate, and our conduct should all measure up to our belief system.

The first essential of leadership is “character.”  My prayer is for all of us to develop the character spiritual leaders need to glorify God and provide for the needs of the 21st century.