WYSIWYG = Vision?

What you see is what you get?

With a layer of snow over everything, it is hard to tell exactly what we have underneath!

Regarding a vision, when things are clear and crisp, we know exactly what we want, where we are going and how we are going to get there.  Holding the vision, steward of the direction and guiding the group is a role of the leader.
We all hold some sort of leadership position.  Some lead classrooms full of students, often times on a great educational adventures.  Some lead teams though physical and athletic adventures, traveling, improving and competing against rivals. Some lead districts or buildings though policies, procedures and committees in academics, safety, behavior and attendance.   But as leaders, we often articulate our ideas to our followers through our actions and our words.
To share the vision, we talk about it.  We paint examples through stories, examples and conversations about a bigger purpose.  Reminiscent of E. Roosevelt’s quote: "Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people," the leader brings the vision to the people.
The better a leader knows the people on the team, the better the examples, and the more applicable to their lives and more effective the words are at conveying the direction!
Another way to share the vision is to act on it.  By acting according to the ideals behind the vision we demonstrate consistency and integrity.  This adds to our credibility and supports our words as well as our actions.  So we end up in a cycle of communication and behavior.  We say one thing and behiave like we believe it and so we back our words with our actions.
This brings us back to the question of “what occurs first?”  belief or behavior?  action or attitude?  thoughts or deeds? 
More on that later.