RUSTLINGS

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

The Bible. Proverbs 29:18

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Vision Is the Driving Force

of Business

Today many execs speak of a "vision" for their company. Far fewer are actually successful at bringing their vision to live through their associates. The following passage was sent to me, and although unfortunately we don't know its author, it's the best definition of visionary leadership that I've come across to date:

What is a Vision?

"WHAT IS A VISION? The term `vision' is used a great deal in today's business. Yet its real purpose and power are far less understood. The essence of a vision was captured by Aristotle. `The soul ... never thinks without a picture,' he said. Leaders are merchants of visions ... powerful mental pictures of an organization's future state. A vision is an organizing force. It organizes and channels enthusiasm. The vision is a picture that is exciting, engaging both the imagination and emotions of those in your organization. A first-rate vision is bold, compelling and magnetic. It provides a deep sense of purpose for meaningful goal. A vision is a beacon. It creates a powerful sense of organization and purpose.

"Moreover, a well-crafted vision empowers your people. It is beautifully brief, allowing each of your people to add their own ideas and details. Great visions demand extraordinary excellence from your people. Test pilots call this `stretching the envelope,' going beyond what is perceived as humanly possible. Deep inside all of us is the desire to test ourselves to our maximum abilities in service of a worthy goal. A shared vision can help tap into the critical commodity of enthusiasm in all of your people. It is an essential tool for the transformational leader."

Vision is what REAGAN had and few do ... regardless of their education and experience.

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"This is all the Inheritance I can give to my dear Family. The Religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed."

Patrick Henry--from his

last will and testament.

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I wish I'd written the following tribute to my wife (and also to my mother...who celebrates her birthday Jan. 31st). It's from a 1985 column in the Southern Illinoisan newspaper.

MOTHERS MONTH

MOTHERS DAY comes seven months too early. Yesterday was really Mothers Day. Christmas Day. What is it without mothers?

The mother in the Christmas story gave birth to the perfect baby. She didn't even need a human father.

Mothers cook the Christmas feast. Some fathers are a little help in these liberated times, but most just stay out of the way, or maybe wash the dishes.

Mothers sustain the merchants of America in the Christmas season. Fathers have been known to buy a few toy trains or basketballs, but if the economy depended on the buying habits of fathers we'd enter another recession.

Mothers make Christmas parties, baking cookies for school, preparing hors d'oeuvres for home. Fathers tag along to the children's Christmas Sings and stir the Christmas punch, under careful supervision.

In fact, instead of Christmas being Mothers Day, December should be observed as Mothers Month, because this is when mothers shine the brightest. There is no less housework to be done, no less labor of those who work outside the home. The children, if anything, are even more exasperating in December than at other times, their wish lists hundreds of dollars beyond reality. What's worse, the schools unload the children on the mothers at this most inconvenient of times, a double disruption for the many single mothers of our day. But mothers plan more in December, achieve more and, if the father and children have any brains at all, receive more appreciation than at other times of the year.

Watch out for over extended mothers in the Christmas season. Their schedules can overwhelm them. Their stamina can break. They can fall into depression when the happy season falls short of their dreams.

Mothers need lots of hugs and kisses and thank-yous right now, more than they need hair dryers and nightgowns. They've been giving and giving and giving their love as hard as they can. They need to receive.

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Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of our possessions.

Congressman

John Randolph 1833

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These times of ours are serious and full of calamity, but all times are essentially alike. As soon as there is life there is danger.

Ralph Waldo Emerson