Ferocious Tenacity – The quality that Bill Gates attributes his success to. Hounding Vendors, executives and team members, Gates would not let up on or settle for less than his vision.
Focus – The quality that Warren Buffett says he shares with Bill Gates. As Mr Buffett has entered into his mature years, he and Mr Munger have built trust with talented people and they haven’t let him down.
Innovation – A quote from Steve Jobs: Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
Its not enough to have a vision, an idea or a quest. It requires both ferocious tenacity, innovation and focus. So here is one of the tipping points for a visionary: What is the most important of all ideas and what is worthy of the company’s focus and tenacity? These are thoughts that bring us to 1 of 4 types of forces in a business: The Visionary.
In Les McKeown’s book The Synergist: How to Lead Your Team to Predictable Success, the Visionary has other qualities that vault them into clearly the center of their business world. There are two modes in which they operate: Active Mode and Idle Mode. In active mode, they energetically pursue the next object of their attention, either an idea or a concept. In idle mode, they have left the shiny object focus to move into recharging mode, typically spent in a people place, whether it be sports, conferences or networking. In active mode, they engage all parties to follow this yellow brick road, aligning all parties toward the new shiny object and pulling them away from the last endeavor. Quite exhausting to others, but not to the visionary. They thrive on change, creative spurts and challenges and are dragged down by trivia and detail.
Great for a company who touts themselves as being innovative, but how does this impact the humans in the company? There are downfalls to others as they navigate around these displays of behavior. Often they are late to a meeting as they are not interested in the minutia, nor do they read all of the background documents and agendas. Often, they hear others present an idea and create a barrier going forward until they compellingly make their mark or lay claim to its new form. Being a part of the environment where a visionary’s ideas fly overhead, circling the camp with exclamations of “Best, Imperative, To Die For, Must Have”. They are trying to whip up the same frenzy in those present. They lose heart in those around them if they do not also display alignment and allegiance.
How does one ever get anything done with this type of structure or lack thereof? First off, choose how you integrate the visionary into meetings and groups. It may not behoove you to involve them in the ground up meetings revolving around the “shiny object”. Once structure is in place, engage the visionary in key aspects by bouncing your ideas and details against their 30,000 foot vision. Disregard some of the responses they may give to the minutia as they think out loud and give comments on the group progress. Let them work out their verbal banter until they get to their conclusive ideas. Another strategy for keeping the visionary engaged is allowing them to choose the venue for the meeting. This allows them to stake a claim and fashion an interest in the meeting. I for one had a hard time along the way having my ideas and my actions up against a visionary. But I truly had a healthy appreciation for their personality. It is what is is, you just have to adapt. And last but not least, communicate with them by finding a way to make them think they you need their help in achieving the height of heights. You may learn something!
