Andy Stanley talks about leading amid uncertainty. What do you do when you don’t have a resolution to a certain situation? How do you communicate vision clearly? When leaders begin, in response to a crisis or uncertainty in the future, to become unclear in their communication they lose their influence. The question is, how do communicate vision when you don’t necessarily know what the future holds? The answer is to return to the original vision, the solid, and the rock on which your ministry is founded. You must, as a leader, communicate the goal and direction so that your church can move forward in any situation. There doesn’t always need to be an answer but the vision must be clear. If as a leader, you have no vision however, or no stake in the ground you begun to fail. The crisis or uncertainty then becomes the direction of you church. The key is to return to the original vision.
I agree with this on two levels. One, it is not helpful in times of uncertainty to pick a direction solely because you need to have a direction or a clear path. A leader can create a situation where they have to follow through on a bad idea because they committed to it or they end up having to change directions too often. Second, I believe that we must have a core vision on which we stand. This allows us to make sure we preserve the important things when times of uncertainty threaten to take our vision and direction away.
I would say even in uncertainty the vision doesn’t change. The vision is the reason that the organization exist, no matter how uncertain the times this does not change. The major role of the leader during times of uncertainty is to continue to communicate the vision. When a leaders fails to communicate vision people start to feel uneasy. They start to doubt the leader and they start to doubt the vision. As long as the leader knows the vision, shows that they believe in the vision, and are willing to move in the direction that the vision is sending them, the people following will be able to have confidence in the direction they are going. I agree with the statement that it is not a good idea to pick a direction just so you have a direction, but one should pick a direction that is in agreement with the vision of the organization. During the pursuit of this direction the leader my find that they have to change course, this is ok as long as the leader is willing to change course as soon as they recognize that a change is needed. The worst thing that a leader can do is stay the course with a bad plan.
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