I am no stranger to the dilemmas of visionary leadership. Some lessons I've learned first-hand in my own business. Other lessons came through work performed in client organizations. When it comes to directional shifts, one particular story comes to mind.
At the beginning of my career, I worked for a rural, faith-based organization. The church’s senior leader wrote a vision document three years prior but the members were not carrying out the vision’s content. The leader began to question the validity of their preferred future. The senior leader went back and forth for a few weeks, asking questions like:
“Should I change my vision?”
“Do we need a new vision?”
"Have our department leaders really bought into the vision?"
At the time, I was a young professional with excess energy (...oh how things have changed!). And the visionary leader brought me in to shake things up. He ultimately decided not to make changes. The vision was still valid, and to him, its lack of realization reinforced its validity.
This story highlights a paradox of visionary leadership:
In these cases, the overall strategic direction does not change, but the visionary leader finds it necessary to shift their focus temporarily.
The focus could shift so radically that a visionary could look up one day and see the preferred future in their rearview mirror. This is especially true during vision-culture wars.
Why is that?
How does that work?
Better yet—how does that apply to visionary leadership?
The next statement is a common pain point and theme in my conversations with visionaries—one that often goes unspoken:
Vision is realized in loops, not lines.
Loops allow leaders to revisit earlier stages of vision development and realization. By rewinding, they can make changes with the knowledge gained from the previous loop.
If you ever look up and it looks like your vision is in your rearview, just remind yourself:
Loops are part of the vision iteration process.
Visionary Leadership: A Guidebook for 21st Century Organizations and Entrepreneurial Teams introduces the Vision360 Leadership model—a framework crafted to help leaders and teams transform vision into reality. At Teaiiano Leadership Solutions, we integrate these principles into every aspect of our coaching, consulting, and leadership development to empower you to anticipate change, innovate with confidence, and achieve lasting success. You can purchase your copy of the book here to dive deeper into these transformative strategies, or explore more insights and resources at our home base: www.teaiiano.com.
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