Vision & Values
Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them. -Stephen Covey
Leadership without a strong vision and values is like attempting to navigate a ship without a compass or a rudder. It’s surely possible to push one’s life and organizations forward without them, but the ultimate destination is not only a mystery, it’s unlikely to be some place worthwhile.
As I’ve grown as both a leader and a man, I’ve come to recognize the importance of strong personal values and a vision for my life. My values are defined by my convictions, the core principles by which I make every decision, both personally and professionally. I define my vision as the means by which I seek to live out my values. Every choice I make is motivated by this vision:
My vision is to actively live out my values (faith, freedom, family) and, in so doing, make a meaningful difference in the world around me by leading transformationally, caring compassionately and practicing unconditional integrity.
I intend to write and speak at length about each of my values and each aspect of my vision statement in the future, but for the purpose of this piece I will merely summarize what I mean by the words I regularly use to describe myself. I’ll begin with my values.
Values
Faith
I am a follower of Jesus; as such I view myself as a sinner saved by grace and a sacred son of God. I am keenly aware of my imperfections and am humbled by God’s boundless mercy permitting me to grow and mature in Him. I view the world through the lens of faith acknowledging God’s love for all of creation, especially every individual person, and our responsibility to treat everyone and everything in such a light. I am passionate about and actively serve the local church, believing wholeheartedly that active participation with “the Bride of Christ” despite her many imperfections and challenges found therein is the only means to fully live out one’s faith and grow as a child of God.
Freedom
Human beings were created to be free. While ultimate freedom is found in a relationship with God through Christ, temporal freedom and the flourishing of humanity on this side of eternity has been best established through “the American experiment.” As such, I am a proud American. I passionately believe in the rights outlined and preserved by the US Constitution and defend it in both word and deed. I served in the US Air Force for 10 years and have run for and served in elected office. To me, being a proud American and defending the rights she guarantees is not a political statement, it’s a core principle and a responsibility of all who have inherited this freedom from our forefathers. However, in my view, freedom is not limited to a national identity. Living free means recognizing one’s ability to think, speak and act independent of any outside coercion or control. Taking personal ownership of one’s life and living with intentionality and purpose every day is the ultimate expression of freedom and precisely how we were created to exist.
Family
Before Erin, my wife, and I were married, we made a decision. We chose to prioritize proximity to family over our careers and all other pursuits. For us, raising our children surrounded by their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins over mattered most because we believe a strong family is the essential bedrock of a healthy society. I often describe myself as a committed husband and dedicated father simply because, sadly, it is no longer the norm. To me, marriage isn’t disposable and being an engaged father is the utmost importance. Broken homes and fatherlessness is one of the greatest plagues on modern society. I will also add to this that family need not be biological. As such, I am also grateful for and actively engaged in my church family, professional family, and social family. Family matters.
Vision
I seek to reflect these values through my vision of practicing transformational leadership, compassionate care, and uncompromising integrity.
By transformational leadership I simply mean that I seek to be a game changer regardless of the official title I hold. Whether I am the designated, titled leader or a team player, my goal is that no team or organization is ever the same as a result of my presence and contribution.
Through compassionate care I mean to take tangible action supporting those in need. The world has enough people who preach compassion but an alarming shortage of those who actually get their hands dirty practicing it.
Finally, I include the phrase uncompromising integrity because I’d rather be honest to a fault than contribute to the lies and deception we’ve simply come to expect from our modern leaders. I would rather be known as a flawed man who regularly makes mistakes despite his best efforts than project an air of faux-perfection only to be outed as a hypocritical fraud.
Through my vision of practicing transformational leadership, compassionate care and uncompromising integrity I strive to make a meaningful difference in every relationship, team, organization, and community of which I’m a part with my values of faith, freedom and family.