Do you celebrate milestone victories? (74-4)

The Lord gave Joshua a leadership lesson on vision early in his leadership of the Hebrew nation. This lesson helped Joshua to understand that an effective leader needs to find ways in the daily processes that take the successes of today and empower their team to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Read Joshua 4:1-9.

God did a wonderful miracle to allow the people to cross the Jordan River on dry ground while the river was at flood stage. He wanted the people to keep the memory of this miracle and His power and care for His people in their mind for generations so He instructed Joshua to take 12 “Stones of Remembrance”, one for each tribe, from the center of the dry riverbed.

That night when the Israelites made camp Joshua built an altar out of the 12 stones and instructed the people that when their children and grandchildren ask about the stone structure they should use this opportunity to point to God’s miracle and His great care for the people. It would be vital for the long term faithfulness of the nation for future generations to know God’s vision for His people.

Good leaders use the transferable truths of God’s lesson to Joshua to provide memory points (even celebrations) of short term successes to help people grab hold of the long term vision. Effective leaders find a way to give reminders of past successes/victories (visual when possible) to communicate future vision because their people need to be constantly reminded of both.

Do you celebrate milestone victories on your way to completion of a project? Are there people on your team who have strengths in putting together visual reminders of past victories that will give people confidence that there is forward progress toward the bigger vision? Is there a way to utilize the skill of your team to help keep the visions clear and the momentum moving forward?