Meridian Magazine : : Print

Leadership for Saints, Part 9:
What Great Leaders See
by Rodger Dean Duncan and Ed J. Pinegar

Great leaders have vision. With clarity, they see who they are and understand how they “fit” in the larger scheme of things. They are both humble and confident—humble as they lead with influence rather than authority or position, and confident as they acknowledge they are on the Lord’s mission being used to accomplish His purposes.

Great leaders see potential everywhere. They see the people they lead as individuals, not as a mass of humanity. They see the individual pieces of detail as well as the broad brush strokes of the big picture. They see the gap between where performance is now and where it should be in the future. They are clear about the cause they champion. They envision, often in very specific terms, what they want to help their people do and become. They constantly practice the art of the possible. Great leaders are people of vision.

There’s really nothing mysterious or complicated about vision. When you were a child, did you dream about what you wanted to be when you grew up? When you were in school, did you ever dream about what you hoped to accomplish in a particular class? When you became engaged, did you imagine the life you hoped to build with your sweetheart?

If you answer yes to any of those questions, you already have a pretty good idea what a “vision” is and have had some practical experience in forming one.

Great leaders—in the family, in the community, and in the Church at every level from nursery workers to Sunday School teachers to bishops to high councilors to stake presidents to general authorities—understand the notion of “vision.” And no matter where they serve, great leaders use vision in blessing the lives of others.

Great leaders have an inside-out perspective. Because they care deeply about the people and causes they serve, they work hard to ensure that their own heads and hearts are “in the right place.” They place more importance on accomplishing good than on who gets the credit. They invest energy in solving (or preventing) problems rather than in assigning blame. They constantly encourage and affirm those around them. They tend to be coachable, always in search of ideas to improve their own performance. (Perhaps that’s why you are reading this book!) They appropriately honor the past, but they work passionately in the present because of their hopes and dreams for the future. This is vision.

A popular story-poem tells of a steep cliff, just off a winding mountain road, responsible for the death or maiming of many people. The village leaders meet to discuss the problem and decide that they can take either of two approaches: They can erect a strong fence at the edge of the cliff, or they can place an ambulance in the valley below. They choose the fence.

The Church of Jesus Christ operates on this same positive premise. To rescue the fallen is good. But it’s better to prevent the fall.

We know that man is created in God’s image, that his potential is unlimited, that his progress is eternal, and that he is blessed in proportion to his obedience to God’s commandments. And to help ensure their continued growth, Latter-day Saints have developed many resources to meet their needs.

It’s been said that merely sitting in church on Sunday no more makes you a Christian than sleeping in a garage makes you a car. We believe in that adage, and ours is a “total immersion” religion—not just because we baptize that way, but because our faith engenders a lifestyle of seven-day involvement.

In a typical Latter-day Saint congregation, as many as 200 people may hold positions. In addition to those specifically designated as “leaders,” these include teachers, musicians, librarians, clerks and assistants called by God to strengthen the spiritual and temporal lives of men, women, fathers, mothers, teenagers, small children.

Our common mission—regardless of our current position or “title”—may be expressed in a single word: Service.

For the committed Latter-day Saint, service is his covenant. It is his responsibility as well as his joy. It is his reason for being.

We came to this earth to grow, to develop, to learn, to progress, to prove our obedience to God’s will and become eligible to return to the presence of our Father in Heaven.
The heaven-ordained vehicle for this increase of worthiness is service. Love is the ultimate concern that brings about righteous service.

Service is not just a by-product of our main duty. Service is not an offshoot of something else deemed more urgent by our leaders.

The Lord simply commands us to “love one another.” That love cannot be passive. It must be active. Service is the demonstration of our love.

Basic as it may seem, love is why tens of thousands of Latter-day Saint missionaries set aside their routine activities for 18 to 24 months and go—at their own expense—to remote places on the globe to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love is why a busy Latter-day Saint mother (and we realize the phrase is redundant) makes room in her hectic schedule to teach others the fine points of money management . . . world cultures . . . social graces . . . or the practical, day-to-day applications of the New Testament.
Love is why a Latter-day Saint man—whose daily calendar is already filled with the responsibilities of marriage, fatherhood and earning a living—gladly devotes another four to 30 hours a week to his Church calling.

Love is why Latter-day Saints of every age are willing to alter, postpone or even set aside other pursuits so they can honor the covenant to bear one another’s burdens, to comfort, to teach and to lead.

Now, let’s be frank. If our love-motivated service is so glorious, you may ask, why do many Church members privately feel guilty about their service? In this context, we don’t use the term guilt in the sense of moral transgression. We use the term guilt to connote something innocent though painful—the sense of inadequacy, frustration and even helplessness experienced by many Church members who feel overwhelmed by all the tugs on their time and energy.

Even for a seasoned worker, receiving and accepting a call to serve in the Church can be an intimidating experience. Most of us have a wide range of priorities tugging at us—our families, our friends, our community obligations, our occupations, our need for physical exercise, our determination to keep up with our scripture study. We have only so many hours in a day, and a lack of balance in handling these priorities can launch us on a guilt trip and hamper our effectiveness.

Service, of course, is a covenant responsibility. As Latter-day Saints we talk of “renewing our covenants” through partaking of the sacrament. This is very important, because worthy participation in the sacrament gives us the opportunity to focus on the Savior’s atoning sacrifice for us, on his promises to us, and on our promises to him. Through the sacrament, we may resolve to do better and to be better. More importantly, we may claim the promise of having the Holy Spirit attend us to guide the allocation of our energies.

It is through service that we are able to put that resolve into action. Our baptismal covenants include our promise “to mourn with those that mourn . . . comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in” (Mosiah 18:9). These covenants encompass the entire range of service from home teaching and visiting teaching to every kind of administering and ministering needed in our Father’s kingdom on earth.

Although most service does not directly involve a priesthood ordinance, righteous service is also a renewing of our covenants.

A question commonly asked by those called to serve is “How will I ever find the time?” It’s usually not that the servant is reluctant. More commonly, the servant is simply lacking the vision of what is possible.

When a leader in the Church inspires council members with vision, he helps them focus on their real mission so that they are ministering to people rather than merely administering programs. – M. Russell Ballard

A real leader ought to be able to foresee what his policies will do to the next generation. Vision must have hope and optimism in it. The past must push us – never pull us. –Thomas S. Monson

Oh, that all council leaders could understand the value of service one to another as taught in this powerful example of the Savior! – M. Russell Ballard

Service is the virtue that has distinguished the great of all times and which they will be remembered by. It places a mark of nobility upon its disciples. It is the dividing line which separates the two great groups of the world—those who help and those who hinder, those who lift and those who lean, those who contribute and those who only consume. How much better it is to give than to receive. Service in any form is comely and beautiful. To give encouragement, to impart sympathy, to show interest, to banish fear, to build self-confidence and awaken hope in the hearts of others, in short to love them and to show it is to render the most precious service. – Bryant S. Hinckley

Bishop Hunsaker also said to be effective in a calling, members need to make an effort to understand their callings. "Sometimes people accept callings and don't understand what is expected. This can make them frustrated once they start the calling," – Church News

Holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood receive it upon a covenant to use its powers in the service of others (see D&C 84:33-40). Indeed, service is a covenant obligation of all members of the Church of Jesus Christ. – Dallin H. Oaks

Note: The excerpts of Leadership for Saints posted on Meridian are only a fraction of the contents of this 349-page book. To learn more about this ground-breaking book and to order copies, click here.

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