Jennifer Mitchell Earley

Each year, individuals sit down with poster board, scissors, and paste in hand to create a vision board – an outward depiction of the things that they aspire to pursue and obtain in their lives in the season ahead.   Similarly, a personal vision statement is a vivid idealized description of a desired outcome that inspires, energizes and helps you create a mental picture of your target. In essence, it is a statement that describes how you see yourself in the future.   A personal vision statement describes your hopes and dreams and evokes a sense of achievement and fulfillment. A personal vision statement is a powerful tool that provokes you to reflect upon your goals to build and shape your dreams.  It differs from a vision board in that a vision board can be very two dimensional; I see it, I like it, I cut it out and put it on a board. But what does the pictures you cut out really mean? Do you really want it or was it an impulse at that moment of time? In this mann...

Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." This is as true in business as it is in life. Organizations whose leaders have no vision are doomed to work under the burden of mere tradition or to chase ill-conceived illusions of grandeur. They cannot prosper and grow because they are either reduced to keeping things status quo or because they have failed to realistically “count the costs” by vetting all outcomes. Leadership entails, “holding and casting” the vision. “Holding" the vision means taking full accountability for the job of keeping the vision alive. Leaders are charged with inspiring confidence in everyone in the organization at all times. Leaders are charged with the task of “writing the vision and making it plain…” (Habakkuk 2:2). You know it is alive when people are continually excited, inspired and committed to its achievement. If they are stressed, weary, overloaded and resigned, they've lost it. It's a leader’s job to...

Each year, leaders (i.e. Chairmen, Chief Executive Officers, Executive Directors, Presidents, etc.) in public and private sector reflect on their past year; evaluate relationships; examine areas where time, money, and energy were invested; evaluate whether or not the goals set were reached; and, if not, revise new ones accordingly. This is referred to as Strategic Planning which is an organization’s process of identifying its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people (Wikipedia.com).  Simply stated, it is the process of determining your long-term goals and then identifying the best way to achieve those goals. The State of the Union Address is an example of Strategic Planning.  The President outlines where we’ve been as a country (our nation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats); where we’re going (our goals, key initiatives, reforms, etc.); and how, specifically, their adm...