An excerpt from the book Servant Leadership

​“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29: 18 (NKJV)

​In the previous chapters of this book, we discovered that leadership is influence and true leadership is self-discovery. When you discover your gifts, you have discovered the tool that God intends for you to use to serve the world. It is by using your gift that you can positively influence the world.

Leadership is also the ability to inspire people towards the achievement of a set goal. Notice that there has to be set goals to be achieved. This therefore means that there is no leadership without vision. Vision is foundational leadership. Vision is the ability to see a preferable future. There is absolutely no leadership except when people are being influenced to a preferable future; a better tomorrow, a better situation, and a better circumstance.

​Andy Stanley once said that dreamers dream of things being different while visionaries envision themselves making a difference. While dreamers dream of a better tomorrow, a visionary sees himself actually making that difference and contributing to that difference.​All leadership starts with a vision. As a leader, you must be able to see a better tomorrow. You must have a clear mental picture of a better future, which is connected to the gift that God has put inside of you.

A vision has several components that make it an authentic vision. I will run through those important components of a vision.​

Dissatisfaction

​True vision is born in the place of dissatisfaction. This is dissatisfaction about a present reality, a present situation and a present circumstance. Leadership is born in this place of dissatisfaction. A person cannot settle for the status quo and at the same time desire to see a change in the status quo.

Martin Luther King Jnr. had a passion to see inequality and racism buried in America. All human beings are born equal in the eyes of God and he wanted to see all Americans having equal opportunities irrespective of the colour of their skin. In his popular speech titled, “I have a dream”, he said that his children will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. For this purpose, Martin Luther King Jr laid down his life and died at the age of 46 fighting for human rights and racial equality in America. After his death, America became the nation that legislated the ideals that MLK lived for.​

Every year, the whole nation comes to a standstill to celebrate a young man who died at the age of 46. Even in death, MLK is still influencing America because of the powerful vision that he had. He was dissatisfied with the status quo. Are you dissatisfied with the status quo, dissatisfied with your life, or the society? Then you have the perfect environment in which you can develop a vision.​

Imagination​

Vision is not just about being dissatisfied with the present reality or situation. It is also about having a clear mental picture of how things ought to be rather than how they are in the present moment.​A leader always has a clear sense of how the church or a particular department ought to be. A leader has a mental picture of how the financial sector of Nigeria ought to be or what governance ought to be like. That clear sense or picture is what vision is. Therefore, vision is about dissatisfaction with the status quo and having a strong mental picture of how things ought to be.

​It was Henry Ford who said, ‘Do not find faults, find the remedy.’’ Many people are skilled in the art of making complaints. They know how to discern what is wrong and complain about it, but not many of such people ever come up with a solution that will make things better. A leader does not do this; a leader is someone who has a clear mental picture of the solution.​

A Sense of Compulsion​

This is a very crucial component of a vision. It is not enough for a leader to be dissatisfied with the status quo and have a clear picture of the way things ought to be, a leader must also have a sense of divine compulsion to do something about it. There are people who talk about God calling them and but they never do anything about it. When the calling of God came upon my life, it came with a sense of divine compulsion. I could relate to this statement that Apostle Paul made, “Yea woe is me if I preach not the gospel.” I do not preach the gospel because I like to; I preach the gospel because I must preach this gospel. If you really understand God’s purpose for your life, then you will realise that you are doomed if you do not walk in line with that purpose.​

A sense of divine compulsion is a sense of divine apprehension for the vision. I like the words of Paul in Philippians 3:13 where he said, “One thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind I press forward toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” He went further to describe this by saying, “I might know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering being made conformable unto His death.”

The sense of divine apprehension you should have for your vision can be compared to being seized by someone suddenly. You must do something about that vision. You must have a compelling desire and a strong sense of compulsion inside of you to solve the problem, to change the status quo, and to do all within your power to ensure that you change the situation. Without that sense of compulsion, true leadership does not exist, and any vision without compulsion is not a true vision.​

Conviction​

Inside a vision, you will find conviction. Conviction is the firm persuasion that the vision will happen. If it is really a vision from God, even though the present reality looks far from it, you will have a sense of conviction inside you, and you will be persuaded of that vision becoming reality. In a real vision, you will find faith. You will be convinced that it will come to pass. You will always find a strong persuasion and conviction in any vision that is real.

To be continued…