The 12 Steps Of Visionary Leadership! A Must Read!

Dear Visionary Leader:

I believe there is compounding, God-given potential in everyone of us. If you could choose to grow your leadership potential by 11% per year, you will double your leadership output in 7 years. Just think about this equation for a few moments. What is the price required to achieve at a God-given level; to ultimately move from production to reproduction in our next season of years? There is a cycle to visionary leadership that will cost a certain amount of sacrifice. Yet, if leaders are willing to walk it out and navigate through toughest of times, they will live the remaining years of their lives witnessing their vision becoming a mission, impacting countless numbers of people. Here are the twelve steps of the cycle of visionary leadership.

1) Birth Date: The vision must be born from within. Your vision must a have a birthdate, a beginning date. You must know that you know that the vision is from the Lord and that He has assigned you to fulfill it. There can be no doubt that the vision is from the Lord. When the tough times come, if you are doubting the vision, you will not see it through to fulfillment.

2) Subscribe: The vision has to be owned. The leader reads and studies all the elements relating to the vision. Until you take ownership of that which has been given to you, you will never move from a person’s day-dream to a God-sized vision. At first you possess the vision; but eventually the vision possesses you.

3) Inscribe: The vision must be written. The greatest visions are written into short, pungent statements. Short does not mean shallow. Until you are able to write it down in concise wording, your vision will not be clear to others. Write it down so you can run with it. Though the vision may be delayed, it will come to pass if you do not faint or lose heart.

4) Describe: The vision must be shared with key partners. Until the God-vision is shared with others, you will not be able to build and broaden a net that works. There are at least three phases to releasing a vision. In essence, you have to birth it, build it and broaden it. Every super highway has onramps for people get on it. The more onramps you can create for all kinds of people to hear and understand about your vision, more compounding your success will be later.

5) Prescribe: The vision must have steps for the involvement of partners. People come to a project from different angles; they need different doors to walk through to achieve divine fulfillment in their lives. Your vision may represent a single house, but there are many different doors for people to walk through to get inside the house. The visionary leader needs to create different levels of involvement. For example, some people like to gradually walk into a river, while others like to jump in over their head.

6) Persecution: The vision will be attacked by others with different agendas. Sooner or later the visionary leader and the vision will come under attack. I am not sure that you can prevent it. Even the best-prepared cannot discern the wolves from the sheep every time. Why the attack? A person who is striving to fulfill a God-given vision reveals the mediocrity of others. Additionally, when the vision has perceived tangible value or it pulls others to it, then there are those individuals who out of their greed or self-preservation, will attack the visionary leader and the vision that he/she prescribes to others.

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I shared above the first, six steps to the cycle of visionary leadership. The first-half paints the picture of the path of the visionary leader. The second-half outlines the path of the pain to move to the level where the vision speaks for itself and multiplication is common in the organization or ministry.

7) Betrayal: The vision will be betrayed by some who claim to be allies. There is something deep about this. The greatest battles are not fought outside of our circle but inside our circle. When you are in doubt about someone, be careful what you say and do. When a key person says he/she is going to do something and they do not do it, don’t ignore it or simply say to yourself that it does not matter. When a person consistently strives to walk into your life but does not add any compounding value, then pause before you lay our diamonds of visionary plan on the table before them.

8) Death: The vision must die to be powerful. This is the most painful time in a visionary’s life. You may end up feeling all alone and wonder if you, and the vision, will live again. Start climbing out of the grave! Keep on doing what the Lord has commanded you. The greatest conqueror of criticism is success! During this timeframe it is important for the leader to have several intimate friends whose main agenda is to help the leader walk out this dark time until the sun rises again. Make it a priority to be seen and heard with others.

9) Resurrection: The vision will become more powerful than before. Death and resurrection bring greater influence and more results. Your critics will dance at your apparent death; but when the Lord resurrects you and the vision, it will demonstrate the power and plan of Christ to them and the world. When resurrection comes, resist the temptation to get even with other people or to set the record straight. Come out of the grave victoriously with fresh momentum to finish what you started.

10) Provision: The vision has greater provision than ever. People of provision who were watching in the past will begin to give generously for the vision to be fulfilled in this generation. The higher the respect, the higher the revenue! When people see firsthand your resolve to fulfill your God-given vision, they will support with their friends, faith and funds. Pray for God’s favor! When favor is high, labor is low. When favor is low, labor is high!

11) Speaks For Itself: The vision now speaks for itself. Now people are talking about what the vision is accomplishing, without the visionary leader doing all of the communicating. Testimonies come after the test. When you pass the vision test, people will begin talking about what the Lord is doing, even when you are not talking about it at all. The vision becomes wider in its influence and deeper in its impact!

12) Multiplication: The vision has moved from addition to multiplication. All future planning is built upon multiplication-focused thinking and execution for compounding results. This is the time when visionaries commit the rest of their lives to reproducing instead of just producing. Your every assignment is now viewed through this lens of acceptance and application. It is at this level where the visionary leader says, if it is not worth reproducing then it is not worth producing!

This is the cycle of visionary leadership. You have read the first-level of the cycle of compounding exponential growth. From this point, God will eventually show what the next level looks like, as well as, the multiplication outcomes. I encourage you to pray and plan to become a visionary leader throughout the remaining days of your life and ministry. Blessings.

Until The Last Person Has Heard,

Dr. James O. Davis
Cofounder / Billion Soul Network
Cochair / Global Networking