Thank God for visionary leaders. Some leaders are so full of vision they wake up in the middle of the night with ideas about how to start new ministries, new businesses or new projects. If they’re not thinking up new programs or initiatives, they’re thinking of ways to reconstruct existing ones. Before the current project is complete, the visionary is already formulating new ideas. 

This constant forward motion invigorates a visionary leader. But when a visionary starts downloading his or her idea for the next great thing, sirens start going off in the brain of the support staff responsible for executing those ideas, no matter how good the idea is. Support staff immediately start thinking of all that will be required to make the idea a reality — which isn’t a bad thing. What is bad is when the difficulty of implementation travels from the staff member's brain to his or her lips while the vision is still fresh. With that in mind, here are three little phrases that can help support staff process the vision dump of a visionary leader. 

1. “Yes, and…" 
Visionary leaders appreciate people who can bring balance to their ideas when the time is right, but they will resent those staff members whose first response is always “we can’t do that” or “that will never work here.” 

Instead, use the “yes, and…” approach. When the visionary leader you’re serving has another idea, let the first words out of your mouth be an affirming “yes.” If you have concerns, you can always tack those on too, but after you say yes. Not because you’re a yes-man, but because your primary role is to serve the man or woman God has placed you under.  

Examples: 
• “Yes, and I seem to remember that we tried that once before. Maybe we can learn from our success (or failure) as we try it again this time.”
• “Yes, and I’d love to bounce this idea off of a few other people and get feedback so we know how to best implement the idea. 
• “Yes, and that makes me think of a lot of questions about how to make that idea happen. Let’s schedule a time for me to ask some questions and make sure I know exactly what you want before I proceed.” 

When a visionary starts downloading his or her idea for the next great thing, sirens start going off in the brain of the support staff responsible for executing those ideas, no matter how good the idea is.

2. "Would you give me a week to…" 
Sometimes when a visionary leader goes into download mode, you love the idea, but you’re completely overwhelmed by the thought of such a massive undertaking. On the other hand, there are times when you think the idea is terrible. Either way, asking this next phrase will buy you time to process constructively. 

Asking, "Would you give me a week to…?” does three things that are helpful. First, it lets your leader know you’ve heard him or her and you’re trying to digest it. Second, it satisfies the leader because you’re taking immediate action on the idea. Third, it creates space between the vision cast and the implementation so the idea can be altered, enlarged or scrapped altogether. 

Examples: 
• “Would you give me a week to pull some of the team together to brainstorm this and bring back a recommendation?”
• “Would you give me a week to research how much money it would cost to do that and bring back a recommendation?”
• “Would you give me a week to look at the calendar and create a rollout plan for this idea and bring back a recommendation?”

3. “What do you hope to accomplish by...”
Visionary leaders sometimes have strong feelings about what they want to accomplish, and then they have a separate idea about how to implement that vision. What often happens during the vision cast is that the vision and the implementation vehicle become intertwined.  

When a support staff member asks, “What do you hope to accomplish by…?” he or she can really begin understand what the leader is trying to accomplish without the distraction of the implementation vehicle. It’s possible that the goal of the idea is good, but the vehicle needs to be changed. When coupled with phrase number two in this list, you can buy time to strategize how to accomplish the leader’s goal most effectively. For instance, the staff member could come back a week later and say, “You said your goal was ______, would you be open to trying a different method of implementation that may accomplish that?" 

These three phrases can be your best friend when serving a visionary leader. They’re not methods of manipulation, but of service. As you become a student of your leader, God will show you more ways to be a shaper of your leader’s ideas and a conduit for those ideas to become reality.