This month my vision for serving and supporting leaders took a huge step.
In just a few moments, I’ll share the tool and process with you that me and my team used to develop and accomplish our vision. But first…
For several years, I have been working toward launching an annual leadership experience for leaders. Like most endeavors, we’ve made a lot of progress at times. And there were times I thought this part of my vision would die.
Several months ago, I sat at lunch with one of our city leaders talking about how we could better support businesses and organizations in our region. I mentioned my passion to provide a practical leadership event for leaders and asked for his feedback.
His face lit up as he blurted out – “I’ve been wanting to do the same thing. In fact tomorrow morning I am meeting with several community leaders to talk about how we can get it done.”
Series of events
The next morning, in a local diner with 5 city and community leaders we drafted a plan. Here’s the crazy part – the resulting plan included far more than the annual conference I envisioned. In fact, this month we launched a series of events that will include:
1. Monthly breakfast. A 30 minute catered breakfast and a 20 minute presentation of proven practices for effective leaders. This event will be hosted the first Wednesday of the month at the Midlothian Conference Center.
2. Quarterly lunch experience. A 2 hour working lunch that will introduce leaders to simple processes and systems that will dramatically improve their team and organization.
3. Annual summit. Full-day leadership experience focused on the life and work of the leader – life and work balance, vision, plans, goals, priority management, and decision-making.
Each of these events will be highly practical experiences to provide leaders with simple, yet effective practices, processes, and systems that can be implemented into their work immediately.
Secrets to accomplishing vision
As we prepared for our first breakfast event, we planned for 10-20 leaders. 35 showed up! It was one of my most encouraging experiences this year. And this experience reminded me of 6 secrets for accomplishing vision…
1. Leaders fulfill vision by serving others. It’s counter intuitive – it doesn’t make sense. The most effective leaders are those who serve. They understand that true success is when your successors are more successful than you.
2. No hurry needed. Those moments of waiting are what your life and work are all about – embrace the adventure that is the in-between.
3. Keep sharing it with the right people. There will be many who listen. Some who like it. Few who support it. And very few who help make your vision a reality. But you’ll only connect with them if you keep telling your story and sharing your dream.
4. Be prepared for it to take off. To be honest, I wasn’t fully ready for this part of my vision to take off this quickly. And that’s ok – you’ll never be 100% ready for anything. That’s the adventure of leading change. Everything is an experiment. So while you never know when it’s going to happen, expect it when you least expect it.
5. Stop and celebrate along the way. To have 2 to 3 times the anticipated attendees show up at an event is a huge win – as long as you have enough food. And we did. After the last person left, we sat down for 30 minutes and discussed the event. Much of the conversation was celebrating the successful experience.
6. Vision is never accomplished, only fulfilled. If your vision is big enough, you’ll never be able to fully accomplish it. But you can fulfill it every day. Make it a habit every day to take one step – no matter how small – toward your goal.
So today I’m giving you a free copy of my popular book on developing with with your team. Click here to download a free copy of Creating Your Business Vision.
Here’s the question: What are you going to do today to take a step toward your vision? Leave your ideas in the comments below.
This is encouraging Michael! When you believe you can, the how to shows up!
Thanks Dennis!
Hi Michael,
Is that monthly breakfast happening this week? The calendar tab at the Midlothian Conference Center doesn’t show it.
Yes. Wednesday, December 4 at 7:00 am. The event is currently promoted on the Midlothian Chamber site. We are developing a site for the event which will be available soon. Thanks for checking in!
Congrats!
Great idea’s- thanks so much for sharing. Many helpful things here.
Thanks!
I agree that you can fulfill your vision everyday even if you’re taking a small step, at least you’re gradually fulfilling it. Fulfilling your vision also go along with by being physically fit and creating a proper mindset towards life.
Thanks for stopping by and adding your thoughts here! Great points.
I’m making great progress in creating a workbook to accompany my career coaching work – specifically about resumes. I think it fits a need that isn’t being met, and am excited to see it get some traction. Isn’t it great when a plan comes together? I’m glad the pieces are falling in place on your project.
That’s great, Tom. I’d love to see the workbook when you have it ready.
Thanks, Michael. I appreciate that.
Thank you DS. I hope our events are fruitful and helpful to the community.
thank you Michael to share your insights with all! Tht is a great inititive than your, helpful for leaders, then also for all the people around them!
Today, taking a step towards my vision is to accept the in-between, listening to what it wistfully says to me and doing simple basic tasks before the next bigger step.
My pleasure Sophie! Glad to see you starting with the small steps.
Congrats on the leadership development series. That especially intrigued me b/c I would like to see more development in that area but find that many seem resistant to the idea of being developed — but networking events plus free food and short but meaningful sessions (for starters) could attract folks even in my area.
Re: what I am doing to move forward — right now, learn as much as I can about some technical aspects of my work and take steps in the right direction even if later I realize that I could improve even more (and I know that will happen but the process of taking small steps often brings clarity).
Looking forward to hearing more about the fruits of your sessions.
Thanks for your great thoughts on the series! I love the idea of taking small steps towards an end result.
That is wonderful news. I look forward to hearing the great results from this.
Thanks!
Michael, that’s amazing! Congrats on taking the steps and getting a conference rolling.
I’ve already taken a couple of steps forward by asking a couple of people I respect if they would endorse my new eBook. That was a huge action.
Thank you – I’m grateful for your encouragement and proud of the steps you are taking!
I think being prepared for it to take of is key. So many times I have talked about doing something and even dreamed about it but then when I was confronted with the opportunity I wasn’t ready! The funny thing is that working in Eastern Europe I’ve learned that before I share an idea I have to be ready to follow through with it because they might ask me right on the spot to get it going!
Great thoughts Caleb!
Michael, you really wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve shared ideas here and next thing I knew they were asking me to implement them either immediately or within the next few days! You’d have thought that I would learn my lesson after 6 years!
That’s a great example of the value of preparation!