Be Mean about the Vision: Preserving and Protecting What Matters

Why would a leader ever want to be mean?
It's all about the vision.

Almost every organization has a vision, but few stick to it over time. Even after short-term success, visions tend to blur, drift, and fade. Why does this happen?

Accomplishing the vision requires intentionality.
It requires consistency.
It requires commitment.
It requires courage.

In Be Mean About the Vision, author Shawn Lovejoy challenges leaders to stay true to the vision--regaining and sustaining its trajectory over time. Lovejoy offers a proven strategy for relentlessly protecting our organization's guiding vision:

• Develop a vision people are willing to die for
• Keep the vision alive in us
• Align everyone around the vision
• Keep the vision from being compromised or even hijacked

One thing is certain--if our church or organization is going to accomplish its mission, we're going to need to be: Determined. Resolute. Intentional. We're going to need to be willing to do whatever it takes to keep the vision from being detoured or derailed. Where there is no vision, people perish. They wander off in random directions. On the flip side, when everyone understands and embraces the vision, there is life, passion, growth, and success! And God will be glorified.

As a leader the kindest, godliest, thing we can do is Be Mean About the Vision.

Shawn Lovejoy is directional leader for CourageToLead.com and former leader of Mountain Lake Church and churchplanters.com. He loves coaching. He loves coaching leaders and pastoring pastors and working with teams as they navigate their way through the vision. Shawn consults, coaches, and speaks to leaders all across the country about all things vision and team. He currently lives in Trussville, Alabama, (a suburb of Birmingham), with his wife Tricia, and their three kids, Hannah, Madison, and Paul.