A tourist was walking by a construction site and saw three brick masons busy at work: The traveler stopped, watched the workers for a while and asked, “What are you doing?” The first mason immediately replied, “Laying bricks, what does it look like?” Still curious, the tourist turned to the second brick mason and again asked, “What are you doing?” The mason stopped working, looked at the tourist and said, “Building a wall.” Not satisfied, the traveler went up to the third worker and asked, “What about you, what are you doing?” The third brick mason turned to face the tourist and said, “I’m building a magnificent cathedral where my children and grandchildren will come to worship.”

Of course, this is a fictional story, but its message echoes through virtually every organization in the world. Team members with the same job and responsibility can have totally different views and attitudes toward their work. The attitude and productivity of people in your organization will be, in large part, determined by their understanding of what they are trying to accomplish.

Great leaders are totally focused on their vision. They think of it by day and dream of it by night. Continually focusing on the vision induces action. Both organizational leaders and team members need to understand and internalize the vision of the company. What separates effective leaders from mediocre leaders, or from no leadership at all, is a clearly defined vision and sharing that vision with members of the organization.

It is crucial that all team members feel the emotion and the potential of the vision and be totally committed to it. The leader’s role is to develop in associates a zeal for the organization’s vision. When team members fully grasp and share the vision, they dedicate the full power of their potential to the company’s future. Vision is the gift of clearly seeing the possibilities. Vision expands your horizons.