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Les Hirst
Project Manager, United States
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Visionary Leadership
I am all for dreaming, some of the most unlikely and impressive things have been done by dreamers. But one characteristic of the dreamers I respect - Francis Ford Coppola, Steve Jobs, folks at Pixar like Ed Catmull and Brad Bird - is that they have a remarkably deep understanding of the industry they work in and of the people they lead, and they are willing to get very deep into the weeds.
They have a very good understanding of BOTH the industry big picture and the tiny details.
Their ability to go back and forth between the little details and the big picture is evident in the leaders I admire most. Some aren't usually thought of as dreamers.
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John O. Dozier, Jr.
Coach, United States
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Visionaries Befriend All Stakeholders And I think of an added, necessary detail, follow-on: How does such a leader achieve this "sort of vision!" There's one aspect I love: they regularly spend time listening — ONLY LISTENING — to "the folks at the coalface." They're intentionally humble enough to get out of the ivory tower to be with frontline folks who have an entirely different and much-needed perspective.
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Graham Williams
Management Consultant, South Africa
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Visionary Leadership Qualities Quite a good deal of balancing is for modern leaders a critical characteristic – appropriate balance between and choosing when to focus on "left brain" and "right brain" thinking, feeling and doing; balancing the order and structure aspects with making connections to develop the bigger picture; balancing task and relationship; balancing necessary detail with free-reign creativity; balancing being contemplative and reflective with taking action and being agile…. Some rich qualities there!
Two short pieces which deal with imagination (riches of dreams, Jungian active imagination, visualising…) are STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN - and with personal visioning which contains many of the elements of shared corporate visioning (values, listening, purpose, meaning…) TO HEAR IS TO SEE.
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Philippe Guenet
Coach, United Kingdom
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Leadership of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk Steve Jobs and its modern incarnation Elon Musk give an erroneous view of good leadership, yet a great view of Corporate leadership in my view.
Steve Jobs had the reputation of putting people under colossal stress and pressure - which in Complexity is called a shallow dive into chaos. This allows lowered constraints and more serendipitous ideas therefore. But this is also a place of strong leadership and burn-out. For a sustainable effort, it is best to have a stronger team autonomy and a more supportive leadership. Obviously, it is difficult to have distributed leadership and yet progress at pace.
Many stories have been reported about Elon Musk through the Tesla journey and the woes of scaling the production of Model 3. Seemed very autocratic and not somebody that you would want to work for. He created a mega ambitious goal and then micro-managed its execution because he was not trusting others to do it, it seems. His concept of a fully automated production chain is also an idea that any Lean Thinker would advised against. Eventually he had to accept that.
Personally, idealising such leadership promotes the wrong perspective of what leadership should be about. I don't believe that they needed to be like that, or that a leader should be like that.
With this said, both also have in common a charisma/egocentricity to follow their views and not be bent by shareholder ask for a conservative short term return. This enables those businesses to play the long games where many other businesses would not whether the investment risks. Apple was on the brink of collapse when Jobs returned. Tesla had touch and go periods and was mainly propped up by Musks own funds and funding rounds. For businesses that strive on change at scale like this, you need to drive an investment culture at the highest level.
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Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
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Leadership of Jobs (Apple) and Musk (Tesla) @Philippe Guenet: You are right to mention Steve Jobs (Apple) and Elon Musk (Tesla) here. Thank you for your sharp analysis of their key leadership qualities. Surely most people would consider them as typical examples of visionary leadership in the world of business.
But interestingly both are combining visionary leadership with exploring unchartered waters or what we call "Blue Ocean Strategy". This combination is also discussed in depth on 12manage in the thread: "Visionary Leadership and Blue Ocean Strategy". Well worth taking a look at!
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Molokanova
Professor, Ukraine
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Implementation Qualities I like dreamers, or rather visionaries, who can look beyond the possible. However, for a real leader, being only a creative dreamer is very little. The leader must have analytical skills to develop a plan for achieving a dream, and then still be able to implement this plan with the help of the created team, working for the result for many years. Otherwise, the wildest dreams remain only dreams. There are many dreamers in the world who will never become real leaders. I would single out such qualities for leaders as the ability to concentrate on the main thing, perseverance and hard work.
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Raphael Kamanga
ICT Consultant, South Africa
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Difference Between Dreamer and Visionary I believe there is a remarkable difference between a dreamer and a visionary. What they have in common is that they can both see the future state of the business. However, the visionary has knowledge, a plan, abilities and the drive to get there. A dreamer can almost be seen as detached from reality. The dreamer seems to fantasize about the future and do little to make it work. I think that the title of dreamer has some negative connotation while visionary is seen in a positive light. I would rather be referred to as a visionary than a dreamer.
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Molokanova
Professor, Ukraine
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Difference Between Dreamer and Visionary A real manager can switch from one behavior model to another as the project progresses along the life cycle. The dreamer remains stuck in the first creative (conceptual) phase. He is bored with planning and daily implementation. He likes to dream and make long-term plans that never come true. Such dreamers make up about one fourth (maybe a fifth) of humanity. I think each of us is familiar with such dreamers in our immediate environment. Maybe we even see him in our mirror every morning.
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Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
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Visionary Leaders don't Have to Implement the Vision Themselves Execution of the vision (through the mission, strategy, culture, organization...) is obviously extremely important. Otherwise the vision remains just a dream. Any effective leader should understand, a...
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Pleiwon K. Dolopei-Saywah
Lecturer, Liberia
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Visionary Leadership @Molokanova: I concur with you. One who dreams and does not implement has achieved nothing. A dream must be achievable....
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Dr. Winston Lynch
Director, United States
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KEY ROLE OF VISIONARIES @Jaap de Jonge: Visionary leadership is part of the transformational process. Transformational leaders effectively listen to the concerns of their subordinates, communicate the organization's vision, ...
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Naureen Dogar
Teacher, Pakistan
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Visionary Leadership Qualities I totally agree with you. How can one dream or dream big about something they do not have a deep understanding of and they are reluctant to get into at the grass roots level?...
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Dr. Winston Lynch
Director, United States
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Distinctive Competence of Visionary Leaders @Molokanova: While dreaming is crucial to visionary leadership, real leaders cannot afford to be stuck in one phase of the process. The strategic posture of visionary leaders is on the continuum. Ther...
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Dario Gragnani
Manager, Italy
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A Rare Skill that is Characteristic of Visionary Leaders Les, it couldn't be said better.
Too much and only abstraction leads to nothingness.
Too much attention to details without thinking out of the box and you'll do whips for carriages....
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Anonymous
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Dreamers versus Visionaries @Molokanova: I like your comment, Prof, that we may have seen the dreamer in our mirrors. No one can dispute that. Many of us have big ideas that never get implemented....
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Gregory Johnson
Coach, United States
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Respect of ALL @John O. Dozier, Jr.: Your comments are very much on point, in that too few people in Leadership positions take the time to listen to those at the bottom rung of the dreadful Hierarchical organization...
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Gregory Johnson
Coach, United States
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Blue Ocean/Red Ocean @Jaap de Jonge: I agree wholeheartedly with Jaap de Jonge when referencing the "Blue Ocean Strategy". I fully believe all who profess to be progressive thinkers versus traditional thinkers (being nice...
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Jayaram
India
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Visionary Leadership Traits Lead from the front. Bridge the aspirations of employer and employee. Blend IQ and EQ. Be down to earth. Delegate. Understand business dynamics. Focus not only revenue generation, market share acquisi...
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Anonymous
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It Starts with a Dream Some of us start to be a dreamer. It is 'free' to be a dreamer.
Some of us can realize the dream to the next level. They take a little bit more effort i.e. to visualize it to reality and clarity.
Vi...
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Molokanova
Professor, Ukraine
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No Ideal Visionary Leader @Dr. Winston Lynch: We mostly are talking about an ideal manager who developed all 4 personality functions. But there are no such people among us. The average person has two strong functions and two ...
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Josephat Olwal Ngesah
Kenya
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Visionary Leaders don't Have to be Like Steve Jobs I totally agree with the idea they have an eye for finer details that allows them to not take anything for granted. It is the finer details that break the camel's back in most organizations. Ignoring ...
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