Too many companies I’ve been with had leadership issues. In the early years of my career, I thought it was because upper management just wasn’t very good. I thought I could do better, why isn’t there vision, direction, this was lacking, that was lacking… basically all the things that we think when we’re young and know it all in our careers. It’s taken me a lot of time to understand what the real problems I was perceiving are. The executives in those companies were not bad executives. There was something more specific missing. It was that right mix of leadership and vision.
For a company to succeed, it needs three things. The first is Leadership. With a capital L. There must be people in the organization of such influence and ability that others want to follow them. Second, there must be Vision. A vision is a driving goal or goals that stretch and improve the company. People must be working towards something that they believe in, that customers will want to buy, that Wall Street and investors believe in, that will grow the company in a positive way. The third is of course execution. If you are leading people towards a vision, but you aren’t executing, you’re actually on a death march towards a vision.
For these three things to be truly effective, there must be a mix of people at the top that have all of these qualities: true leadership, the ability to execute, and a living, breathing, growing vision for the company. Contrary to popular belief, the company CAN have too many people like this. The company has a limit to its resources; if you have more leaders with visions than you have resources, you have contention, that contention will cut into the growth of all of the seperate visions, and you will stunt your company in the long run. It’s a fine balancing act.
For every person with vision, you need many managers. Managers are usually where execution come in. People with vision and leadership point the direction and inspire people, but they cannot always handle all the details of the journey. Managers, and possibly more leaders who support the vision, are needed in order to get these visions accomplished. The company is better off if your visionaries can spend their time evangelizing and expanding their visions than if they’re managing the process of implementing their visions. All of the great explorers of history, for example, had visions- to discover a new world, to find gold, whatever, but they had a vision, and they had enough leadership that men followed them. Those who succeeded not only had a vision and leadership, they had enough management skills to not starve, to not get hopelessly lost, to not freeze to death, and so on.
Interestingly enough, the visionary leaders in your company may not be executives. Most executives have other jobs than to have Visions. Your CEO, for example, is likely responsible for gaining funding from Wall Street and evangelizing your company’s vision to investors; this does not always leave time to create a vision or to share it internally. CFOs are usually money men. CIOs and CTOs are usually responsible for the technologies that make other people’s visions work. In fact, sometimes the vision and leadership comes from the lower levels of the company- individual project managers, analysts, and different types of business folks. These people push their ideas up, eventually find executives who will support their ideas and make them company priorities, and then things grow from there. The ability to recognize and nurture visions is just as important in an executive as the ability to have a vision.
You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this. Why does this matter to you?
It matters to you in the same way it matters to me. At some point in your career, you must ask yourself: am I a Manager, or a Leader? Am I a Vision person, or no? None of these questions will limit your career. Like I said, many C’s are Managers or Leaders but not visionaries, and this is in no way a detriment- companies need a mix. Why you need to ask this of yourself is that it will help you decide in what ways you should be growing your skills and focusing your time. It will help you understand what jobs to apply for, what situations to look for, what thinks you are best at. It will even help you understand how to build your team better. Teams need an evangelist for your project, for example. If that’s not you, then you’ll need to recruit one. If you have a great idea but are not a planner, you need to find and add people to your team who can handle the details of execution.
Knowing and understanding your strengths and your role in the organization and your goals for your role will help make you better at it. In the long run, it will make your career grow faster.