I was hired to run a non-profit organization with the mission to end world hunger. Coming from the business world before serving as executive director, I had a lot of experience managing people. I was also trained by the National Leadership Institute, so I felt I had a fine pedigree in leadership and that I was well-qualified to run this organization. When I met with the staff, they were all very well-meaning people, yet they did not seem charged up about the cause. I was surprised. There are so few paying jobs in the non-profit world that I thought this team would not only be happy to be there, but also very passionate because they are taking on an issue so close to their hearts. Instead they were tired, and acting like soldiers in the midst of trench warfare. I tried every leadership trick in the book and nothing was working. I realized that while we had an honorable mission, the vision was missing. Vision is the plan to realize the mission. It’s where the ideal becomes real. The mission is about how the world changes as a result of the organization. But the vision is where the rubber hits the road. The “how.” I lead the team in creating a vision statement that focused on how we would solve hunger on a local level using a model that could be replicated anywhere in the world. Because everyone could really visualize it, we were all charged up, knowing that our everyday work on a small local level could eventually change the entire world.

Dream big, but clearly visualize the way to make it happen.