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Articulating a vision is an art.  One that requires a unique ability to see further than others can.  A superpower gifted to few, but followed by many.  Articulating a Vision  On Monday, we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr.  There is no better example of a leader casting vision of what could be and should be than in his historic I Have a Dream Speech. Dr. King saw something no one else could from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that day.  There were people that HEARD the speech who desired to see a day in which “Little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands

Willingness is the great differentiator between ordinary and extraordinary leaders.  Whenever I get the opportunity to speak on the topic of leadership, I share this definition: “Leadership is the ability and willingness to better others and the world we live in.” There are two key words in this definition…ability and willingness.  Each and every person possesses the ability to be an extraordinary leader.  The question is do we have the willingness? The Willing I get the honor of serving my hometown of Acworth, Georgia as City Manager.  In that role, I have the awesome responsibility to oversee the daily operations of our city.  With that responsibility comes the

Early believers are critical to the start of every leader’s journey.  They were our Initial Investors who made the deposits of belief in us expecting a high rate of return.  Believers that saw more in us than we saw in ourselves at the time.  It was their belief that served as the spark that ignited our fire. Belief Belief is a big deal this time of year.  In my faith, Christians rest our total belief in the fact that our savior was born on Christmas Day.  A few days later, the Jewish people will celebrate their belief behind a miracle of a candle that was supposed to only

What is your superpower?  At some point in our lives, we have been enamored with a fictious hero that possesses a superpower.  A unique tool only they can deploy that sets them apart.  It has the potential to save the world.      What Is Your Superpower? A few weeks ago, our Mayor and I were meeting with one of our local principals.  Both the principal and I are products of our community and the school system she now plays a key role in administering. She was recently appointed as the principal of her school and as customary, as best practice we like to facilitate a meeting between the

Out of position is not a place any player wants to be.  It means that their positioning on the field of play has cost them and the team something.  They just weren’t where they were supposed to be.  Out of Position For twenty-one years I roamed the sidelines of a football field as a coach.  As a head coach, I always called the plays on offense and had a strong defensive coordinator to complement me.  Even as an offensive mind, I always loved the element of working with the defensive coordinator to develop schemes to put the players in the right positions to make plays. Our schemes were

The value of circumstances are found in life and leadership lessons.  If we are living and breathing, we face circumstances.  They are the conditions of the environment that we currently exist in. Here is the thing about circumstances, especially when they are tough ones.  We as humans naturally want to be rescued from them.  Just like the Coast Guard rescuing someone from a raging sea.  We want that helicopter to drop the ladder and extract us out of the circumstance…immediately.  Not later, but now.  Since the ladder doesn’t always get dropped down for us, we must change our approach to difficult seasons in our worlds.  Our prayers and