What is a Visionary? Part I

One of the most powerful EOS tools is the accountability chart. It’s powerful because it crystallizes the right structure (click here to download the accountability chart) and illustrates all available seats in your organization. In addition, it clarifies who reports to who and who is accountable for what.

All that said, it also illuminates the Visionary and Integrator roles sitting atop the major functions of your business. (An organization has a Visionary about 50 percent of the time, and it must have an Integrator 100 percent of the time.)

This blog is about helping to clarify the Visionary role (a.k.a. Founder, CEO, Chairman, President) and its value so that if you are one, or have one, you maximize the role’s potential. (In my next blog, I’ll clarify the Integrator role.)

A Visionary is a person who has lots of ideas, is a strategic thinker, always sees the big picture, has a pulse on your industry, connects the dots, and researches and develops new products and services. The Visionary typically is the founding entrepreneur, operates more on emotion, and has ADD (but not always). This person is great with big relationships, the culture of the organization, and solving big, ugly problems (not the little ones); sees things others can’t; creates and holds the company vision; and is great at closing big deals. Visionaries are the creators of everything.

On the other side, a Visionary isn’t good at holding people accountable, doesn’t like details, doesn’t like running the day to day of the business, isn’t good at following through, gets distracted easily, and is always trying to get 100 pounds in a 50-pound bag. All of this can create a lot of chaos for an organization.

The idea here is that if you are a Visionary, your job is to delegate and elevate yourself to your true God-given skill set. This will require you to have a strong Integrator in place so that you can fully assume the Visionary role for your organization. This will free up your energy and creativity to grow your company, protect your vision, wow your customers, get more business, protect your culture, and stay three steps ahead of everyone, including the competition.

One caution: It’s vital that, as a Visionary, you work close with and trust your Integrator, as your Integrator will serve as a great filter of all your ideas and protect the company from the chaos. It’s vital because your company can only move as fast as its capacity.

Look for what an Integrator is in my next blog.