The first, most important, most urgent job of a leader is to get the "overalls" right. Nothing else can be quite right or meaningful or effective or successful if the overalls are not right. Scripture calls it foundations or cornerstones. Socrates called it first principles. Business executives call it the big ideas. In this brief primer I will focus on three overalls: the overall vision, the overall philosophy, and the overall culture.
     The overall vision is the true ultimate goal. Some leaders are way too general or theoretical with their vision. Some leaders have no vision at all, they focus on immediate goals and activities. A specific vision, a meaty and tasty big-picture goal, on the other hand, gives the groupmind something to imaginate and play with mentally, and as they do, start to feel in their passions, and as they do, start to act and behave towards the vision. A specific vision is both a harvest and a seed.
     Since college football is starting back up, ponder this example. Two different college football teams have two different visions: (1) have a winning season versus (2) win the national championship.
     Ponder the different tones and triggers. Have a winning season? Does that mean going 6-5 or 10-1? One player might sense that means 6-5, triggering a level of effort and preparation commensurate to 6-5, while another player might sense that means 10-1, triggering a level of effort and preparation commensurate to 10-1. As a man thinks within himself so he is, Proverbs 23:7 (NASB) soberingly reminds. "Have a winning season" is too murky, fragmenting the groupmind.
     Win the national championship? Well, 99%, if not 100%, of the players in that locker room know exactly what that means, at least in terms of effort, preparation, detail, accountability, etc.
     The overall philosophy is the general approach to how the vision is going to be actualized. If a football team's overall vision is to win the national championship, the overall philosophy would be their offensive approach and defensive approach. Offensively, if they have smaller linemen, perhaps they play a no-huddle, hurry-up, fast tempo offense to wear out the giants on defense. If they have three wide receivers over six feet tall, perhaps they play a pro style, air attack offense. The big idea on offense and the big idea on defense is the team's overall philosophy.
     The overall culture is the attitudes, habits, and must-dos of the group. What would the team culture of a national championship contender be? Showing up early, leaving late, neurotic excellence in the details, never being satisfied, pushing personal limits, severe and swift accountability, etc. It would seem every college team or professional team has such a culture, considering the dizzying amount of resources and attention invested, however, on-the-field results always betray the culture in the locker room, weight room, practice field, and cafeteria. A team that regularly commits silly penalties, concentration errors, sloppy execution, begins sluggishly, finishes sluggishly, loses big leads, etc. is a team with an inferior overall culture. The coaches are not modeling and enforcing champion-level attitudes, habits, and must-dos, or not doing so enough.
     It is upon the bedrock layers of vision, philosophy, and culture that practical procedures and activities are established. All these elements have to be congruent and synchronized like an efficient machine. This is true of coaches leading teams, parents leading families, pastors leading churches, executives leading companies, and any other type of group with a leader and a destination percolating in the groupmind.