Two musts for your strategic plans

Tom Harper

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"New" is our job as leaders. We must keep things fresh, alive, exciting. We are expected to have a handle on the future, or at least have a vision for what could be.

Do you have plans in the works? It might be an idea for a project, product or initiative. Or maybe there's a new dream stirring.

If you've led for any amount of time, you know that what we try to cook up doesn't always end up like the original recipe.

This is maddening to me. I have always been a big planner. But I have learned to do two things with my plans.

First, I simplify them. Fewer words is better.

Second, I put them before the Lord sooner and more often.

I've seen my plans change so many times that to preserve my sanity I have to loosen my grip on them.

If you find yourself in similar territory, a verse I refer to often should help:

"Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."
—Proverbs 19:21

Trusting him with my plans,



Tom Harper
Founder, BiblicalLeadership.com
LinkedIn profile | My books


Tom Harper is publisher of BiblicalLeadership.com and executive chairman of Networld Media Group, a business-to-business publisher and event producer. He has written five books, including Servant Leader Strong: Uniting Biblical Wisdom and High-Performance Leadership (DeepWater Books, 2019) as well as the Christian business fable Through Colored Glasses and its sequel Inner Threat (DeepWater, 2022).

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