Leadership is the capacity to
translate vision into reality. – Warren Bennis
About 350
years ago, as the story is told, a shipload of travelers landed on the
northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The
next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government
planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness.
In the
fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they
thought it was a waste of public funds to build the road westward into a
wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?
Here were
people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and
overcome hardships to get there. But in a few short years were not able to see
five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision.
Visionary
leaders (those who see the big picture) and strategic leaders (those who create
the plan) are essential for the future growth and development of any
organization. But can the two co-exist? It can be a challenging relationship
but not an impossible one if you follow these basic rules of engagement.
Embrace your differences
Visionary
leaders tend to be your charismatic type leaders who can cast the vision with
great enthusiasm and confidence. They have a clear picture in their heart and
mind of where they are going and why you should too.
But
visionary leaders can at times be hard to work with. In his book, Rules of Thumb, Alan M. Webber writes,
“Great idea people are rare- and also frequently hard to live with. They see
things the rest of us can’t see, which is their gift. They can’t see what you
and I see easily, which is their burden. Still, you need them and they need a
home where they can contribute.”
Strategic
leaders can be a great asset to the visionary leader by breaking down the
vision into doable and measurable action steps which creates the vision. The strategic
leader is the one who puts the puzzle together.
Leadership
key: Your differences are your strengths. Embrace them and work together. You
need each other.
Build a bridge
What
strategic leaders and visionary leaders need is a way to connect. The divide
between ideas and implementation must be joined. There has to be a way as
Webber says to “build a bridge the great ideas can walk across from those who
have to those who can make them real.”
For the vision to materialize this is a necessity. So what is a leader
to do?
The vision
needs a strategic plan. It has to be clearly communicated and thoroughly
understood before the pieces of the puzzle can be created. From there roles can
be assigned and teams put into place, and the execution can begin. The hard
part will come later.
Leadership
key: Before you build your vision build your relationships. The vision rises
and falls on the strength of your communication and relationships.
Give each other space
The role of
the visionary leader is not the same as the strategic leader, and vice versa.
The relationship is one of isolation and interdependency. Boundaries must be
set, observed, and protected while at the same time staying bridged with a
unified goal and vision. It’s tricky.
The
temptation of the visionary leader is to tinker, mettle, and tweak. Their
greatest asset can now become their greatest liability. While they are
excellent at creating the vision they can be terrible at designing the plan. As
long as they keep interjecting themselves into the details of execution they
will stifle the execution.
Strategic leaders
thrive on creating the plan and seeing it come into existence. The visionary
leader has to learn to give this person the space they need to work. It is a
relationship of necessity, one of complexity, but most of all trust. The
partnership will only survive if it’s built on mutual trust. The respective
leaders have to know how to embrace a shared vision but then give each other
the space needed to bring it to pass. When they do it can lead to overwhelming
success.
Leadership
key: Out of respect give each other space. Out of trust let each other work.
What do you
say?
© 2014 Doug
Dickerson
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