One of the most powerful EOS® tools is the Accountability Chart. It’s powerful because it crystallizes the right structure 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.
What is a Visionary?
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); seeing things others can’t; creating and holding the company vision; and is great at closing big deals. Visionaries are the creators of everything.
Visionaries Without Integrators: A Recipe for Chaos
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.
If you are a Visionary, your job is to delegate and to 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 – freeing 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 you, as a Visionary, trust and work closely with your Integrator. Your Integrator will serve as a great filter of all your ideas and protect the company from the chaos so your organization can stay focused and work efficiently.
