By Matt Paese, Ph.D.
I’ll never forget a conference years ago where I met nice guy whose business card is still somewhere in my desk. Under his name reads the coveted title, “Visionary”. A title like this clearly screams for inquiry, so I couldn’t help asking, but in our short exchange, I never quite figured out how he got the title or what his job was. Now years later, I find myself wondering again.
A short while ago I hung up the phone with a senior executive who runs the web operation for a global retailer. We were discussing a candidate for a major role on his executive team, and a question came up…about vision.
She’s a shoe-in for the job, but her soon-to-be boss asked, “Can she sell the vision?” This organization’s web strategy is new, unique, and will require big change. Not everyone will understand it, and some will almost certainly resist it.
The well-striped candidate in question is even-tempered, focused and driven, pragmatic, and at times a bit too much so on all these fronts. No doubt she can drive the strategy, but what if she can’t get anyone to believe in the vision? I’m left with a different question:
Where should vision come from, and why should we have to “sell” it?
Doesn’t the phrase “sell the vision” suggest that we’ve already missed the opportunity to involve others in its construction? I know there are some who are clearly better at seeing future possibilities than others, and there are some (often not the same people) who are better at communicating what that brighter future might look like. But is it true that great vision can only be generated from the unique minds of a few “visionaries”?
I don’t think so.
While nuggets of possibility are often born from the minds of individuals, it’s only when these nuggets are tumbled by the imaginations of an engaged team that the full measure of a vision is truly fashioned. There is then no need to sell a vision that is already owned by its buyers.
Recently a DDI survey revealed that more than half of US workers feel their careers are stagnant, largely because they’re not involved in challenging assignments.
Since we’re all rethinking the future, and since so many of our associates are feeling stagnant, maybe we should rethink the notion of “the visionary leader”, and begin considering “the visionary organization”.
Matt Paese is the Vice President of Executive Solutions for Development Dimensions International (DDI).
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