Visionary Leadership Defined

In its simplest form visionary leadership is about envisioning where an organization should be in a reasonably long-term future, conveying this vision in various ways to others, motivating individuals to share and commit to this vision, and aligning resources and processes to accomplish it. Several experts or authors on leadership have defined visionary leadership and three stand out and merit citing. These include Marshall Sashkin (1989), Burt Nanus (1992), and Stephen Harper (2001).

Sashkin, for example, states:

My theory of effective executive leadership, or visionary leadership, considers not only the leader’s personal characteristics, not only the leader’s behavior, and not only the situation; it considers all three. Only by looking at each of these factors as they relate to one another can we truly understand visionary leadership. Visionary leaders share certain characteristics that are different from personality traits on which early leadership focused. In addition, they have a deep, basic awareness of key situational factors that dictate what leadership approach and actions are required. Furthermore, these leaders not only know what behaviors are required, they can also carry out those behaviors. (Sashkin, Wren ed., 1995, p. 403).

Having premised his visionary leadership on a historical and theoretical basis, Sashkin proceeds to describe the major aspects of his approach in greater detail. Summarizing this, he first states that a visionary leader is one who establishes a vision or “ideal image of the organization and its culture.” Second, a leader constructs a lucid and sound philosophy that concisely describes the vision and then develops methods to attain this in practical terms considering the organization’s unique culture. Third, and finally, a leader “engages on a one-to-one basis with others to initiate and gain support for the vision.” (p. 403).

Nanus, in his book Visionary Leadership: Creating a Compelling Sense of Direction for Your Organization (1992), states that:

There is no more powerful engine driving an organization toward excellence and long-range success than an attractive, worthwhile, and achievable vision of the future, widely shared… there is no mystery about this. Effective leaders have agendas; they are totally result oriented. They adopt challenging new visions of what is both possible and desirable, communicate their visions, and persuade others to become so committed to these new directions that they are eager to lend their resources and energies to make it happen. (pp. 3-4).

Thus, Nanus points out that the “right vision of the future for an organization” is a compelling and acceptable idea, one in which a leader effectively communicates and motivates people to act. The resulting action causes these people and their organization

to evolve and, by necessity, make progress (p. 16). In establishing this right vision, Nanus cites four “forces.”

“The right vision attracts commitment and energizes people.” This is somewhat self-explanatory. In short, individuals are naturally inclined to want and to desire things that they can believe in and commit to, as Nanus describes it, “a significant challenge that befits one’s best efforts.” The right vision must “link up,” as a consequence, with a person’s consciousness, awareness and their needs. If the vision or image or idea of organizational direction has appeal, promise, and benefits to be gained, a person is highly likely to jump on board and to work enthusiastically to make the vision a reality. “The right vision creates meaning in workers’ lives.” Individuals need a sense of personal mission, importance and/or self-esteem associated with their work lives. Leadership and management experts universally believe that people who take pride in their work, what they are attempting to do or make, in terms of services and products, are more successful, happier and productive. Therefore, finding meaningfulness on the job, or within the context of one’s work, is paramount to (Maslow’s) the concept or feeling of “self-actualization” or self-worth. “The right vision establishes a standard of excellence.” The right vision clearly establishes where an organization is going in the future and also what an organization “stands for.” In effect, this is the same as establishing a standard or norm for organizational success. So in this sense the right vision can also be seen as, or equivalent to, “a touchstone of organizational distinction and quality.” “The right vision bridges the present and the future.” Many so-called leaders get so caught up or involved with the day-to-day activities (“problems and details”) of an organization that they spend little or virtually no time on forward-thinking. Hence, no vision and no progress. The right vision must connect today’s organization with tomorrow’s. A visionary leader must dedicate him or herself to future customer needs, future organizational processes, future or long-range organizational products and services. A right vision takes all of these important matters into consideration and serves as a “beacon” and working framework for linking the present organization and all of its components to the emerging future. (pp. 16-18).

Finally, Stephen Harper (2001) writes:

Crafting the company’s [organization’s] vision may be the most important role breakthrough leaders can play in creating a forward-focused company. Breakthrough leadership will only be possible if the company has a clearly articulated vision. The vision serves three purposes. First, it serves as the company’s North Star. All decisions, plans, and activities should be directed toward fulfilling the company’s vision. Second, the vision must be compelling. It should give each person in the company a reason to jump out of bed in the morning. Third, the vision can serve as the glue that binds all the company’s components together. Carlo Burmat, dean of the Duxx Graduate School of Business Leadership in Monterey, Mexico, noted that the role of visioning plays in fostering a collaborative environment. He stated, “Each of us has a fragmented view of how the world works. The leader’s role is to put together and harmonize such views, because only by

associating minds in this way can you acquire a full and objective view of the world.” (pp. 30-31). (Note: bracketed word added).

Harper’s use of the term “breakthrough leader,” is his expression for a leader with vision. His book, The Forward-Focused Organization: Visionary Thinking and Breakthrough Leadership to Create Your Company’s Future (2001), is aimed mainly at corporate leadership and organizational success. But his discussion is apropos clearly for public organizations as well.

Harper argues that a vision is crafted with the assistance of, and the keeping in mind of, organizational (private and/or public) workers, stakeholders, customers, suppliers, etc. All of these players are essential to the success of an organization and are therefore needed at varying stages in the articulation and implementation of a vision. For Harper, there are many possible futures, depending of course on the leader’s discretion and the application of organizational components, and pressures and priorities exerted from externalities. Leaders must, working with those organizational resources available, try to narrow down what the vision is and encompasses. While the vision must have a certain clarity about it, it should be broad enough and flexible to allow for unforeseen situations and circumstances.

Once a vision is articulated, everyone necessarily involved in bringing about its realization should see and understand the same vision and all of its probable intricacies and distinctions. The leader has a responsibility to put this vision all together in a cohesive and understandable form or image of the future. Through the power of persuasion, the leader keeps the vision alive and interesting, something which unequivocally has merit and is worthy of effort. Harper states further that visionary leaders must be courageous (bold, willing to take risks, and desirous of letting go of the past), resilient (firm in some cases and flexible in others), and decisive (possess a sense of urgency, be earnest and resolute). (pp. 31-34).

Visionary Leadership Roles

The preceding section presented an overview of three definitions of visionary leadership. Visionary leadership is putting together a shared vision or image of an organization for the long-term future, energizing staff and other key stakeholders, achieving long-standing commitments, and working together or collaboratively to bring the vision to completion. To further the meaning of visionary leadership, Burt Nanus (1992) analyzes the roles of visionary leaders and distills them down to four: 1) direction setter, 2) change agent, 3) spokesperson, and 4) coach. (See pp. 10-15).

Prior to discussing these four visionary leadership roles, however, Nanus predicates them on possession and demonstration of key skills or abilities (pp. 11-12). First, Nanus believes a visionary leader must be capable of effectively communicating with managers and other employees within an organization. This requires the leader to provide “guidance, encouragement, and motivation.” Next, or second, a visionary leader must comprehend the outside environment and be capable of reacting appropriately to its threats and opportunities. This includes most importantly being able to “relate skillfully” with key individuals external to an organization, but nevertheless essential to it (“investors, customers, etc.”). Third, a visionary leader must be instrumental in shaping and affecting organizational practices, procedures, products, and

services. A leader in this sense must be involved or rather engrossed in an organization to bring about and sustain excellence while preparing and leading the way to the future—a successfully achieved vision. And lastly, and a logical extension to the former leadership skill or ability, a visionary leader must have or develop a niche for “anticipating the future.” This niche is an imaginative, yet data-based ability to assess future customer needs, technologies, and so forth. This includes the capability of aligning organizational resources in order to be prepared to meet these emerging needs and changes.

With this background in mind, the first visionary leadership role Nanus (1992) discusses as necessary to being effective is the direction setter. The direction setter role is one where a leader presents a vision, a convincing image or target for an organization to achieve in the future, and involves people from the “get-go.” This for many experts in the study and practice of leadership is the essence of visionary leadership. As a direction setter, a leader presents a vision, communicates it, motivates worker and colleagues, and convinces people that it is the right direction to proceed and encourages participation on all levels and at all stages of progress towards the vision. (p. 13).

Change agent is the appellation given to the second critical role a visionary leader must play. In the context of change, the external environment is central. Economic, social, technological, and political changes occur continuously, some dramatic and others subtle in nature. Indeed, customer needs and preferences change as do those of other organizational stakeholders. Effective leaders must be constantly attuned to these changes and think ahead to potential changes and changeability. This ensures that the leader is prepared for any situations or circumstances that may threaten organizational success for the present and, most importantly, for the future. Finally, as stated earlier in this monograph, flexibility and calculated risk taking are also important in a changing environment. (pp. 13-14).

The third indispensable role of a visionary leader is that of spokesperson. Getting the “message” out, so to speak, is a significant part of envisioning the future of an organization. An effective leader is also a person who knows and appreciates the many available forms of communication available in explaining and building support for a vision of the future. The leader, as spokesperson for the vision, must communicate a message that strikes the right chord with everyone involved with or touched by the organizational vision—internally and externally. It must be a message, as Nanus puts it, which is “worthwhile, attractive, and exciting about the future of the organization.” (p. 14).

And last, or fourth, an effective visionary leader is tantamount to being a good coach. By this it is meant that a leader must use teamwork to achieve the stated vision. A leader empowers his or her “players” to work together, to coordinate their efforts or activities, toward “winning” or achieving an organizational vision. The leader, as coach, keeps people focused on realizing the vision by directing, encouraging, and building trust among the many players that are crucial to an organization and its vision of the future. In some cases, it can be argued that the leader as coach, might more appropriately be designated a “player-coach.” This would be a leader who, like the legendary Boston Celtic’s Bill Russell, or perhaps a Michael Jordan, both “played as well as coached.” Today’s corporate examples or equivalents would include Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Amazon’s Jeffery Bezo, or Apple’s Steve Jobs. A question one might ask, “In public service,

what visionary leaders stand out that exhibit or embody this coach-player role style, or for even that matter, simply coach style?” (Note: For further discussion on visionary leader roles see Hesselbein, Goldsmith, and Beckhard, eds., The Leader of the Future: New Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the Next Era, 1997).

Visionary Leadership in Action

Visionary leadership is a concept that can be expounded upon and understood through literature and theory. But of greater significance is the reality of visionary leadership carried out in a host of concrete actions, proceedings, and events. In this section, visionary leadership will be looked at in the active sense as it falls within the spheres of movement, change, and time. Obviously, while doing visionary leadership is different from talking about or analyzing it, the medium used here will be necessarily a written one. This is inescapable. In any case, the emphasis placed on the following content and discussion should be seen strongly by the reader to be one that implies or means acting as opposed to one that is merely theoretical or ideological.

Harper (2001) states that leaders are facing an era of rapid or “accelerating” change. Hence, timing is critical to being an effective visionary leader. In order to cope satisfactorily (competently) with this acceleration of change, associated principally with the external environment, leaders exercise the distinct competencies of anticipation, speed, agility, and perceptiveness. (pp. 61-78)

By anticipation, it is meant that visionary leaders must “proactively” examine the external environment to discover changes that may positively or negatively impact the organization. Leaders should also actively encourage workers to be cognizant of change factors outside the organization and to keep the organization’s leaders and managers aware of such changes. Being “perceptive, nimble and innovative” in such endeavors will benefit the organization universally (p. 62). Additionally, the practice of using “what if” type scenarios is beneficial to leaders and their anticipatory capabilities. Regularly considering and discussing possible scenarios that “may occur” in the future, keeps the visionary leader focused and prepared for a variety of potentialities. The creation of contingency plans may be useful for some likely scenarios. (p. 63).

Besides Harper (2001), other leadership and management authors believe that speed is crucial to staying competitive, responding quickly to customer needs, and saving money. (See Grant and Gnyawali, May-June 1995; McKenna, September 1997; LeBoeuf, 1993; Reinhardt, December 1997; Carnevale, 1990). Experts agree that in today’s world of commerce and trade, including most public sector areas as well, being fast or prompt in meeting customer or constituent needs is all-important. Those organizations that have a competitive edge, or focus on excellence or benchmarks in their efforts and results, are normally considered successful and are those consistently relied upon to provide needed services and products. Visionary leaders see speed as a capability that must be mastered in order to satisfy customers who want or desire “immediate fulfillment” (gratification). Fast, efficient, and friendly service is, for example, what people want when dealing with governmental entities. Red-tape, long lines, rude civil servants, etc. should and must be a thing of the past. The public expects and should receive the highest quality service possible from public entities and, again, this means speed. Technology and Web-based systems

are, for example, new ways of achieving this new rapidity in product and service delivery. (pp. 64-68).

Agility is another term that is becoming increasingly associated with visionary leadership. The National Baldrige Program defines it as “a capacity for rapid change and flexibility” (NIST, p. 2). Similarly, Harper (2001, p. 70) declares that “agility is the ability to turn on a dime.” Agility is, therefore, the capacity for a leader to see ahead in terms of what lies ahead for an organization (perceptiveness). It also includes the capacity for being prepared as well as flexible in order to make timely changes or adjustments to thwart threats and take advantage of opportunities. Agility has several integral components:

The ability to develop and make available new and desirable products and services. The ability to enter new markets or connect with new constituencies. The ability to adjust and respond to changing customer needs. The ability to adjust swiftly from one organizational process or procedure to another. The ability to compress time in the delivery of goods and services. (p. 70).

Perceptiveness is another fundamental capacity of the visionary leader in action. Leaders, according to experts and practitioners alike, must discern the intricacies and changeability of the external environment. This insightfulness or acuity must be constantly exercised and appropriate responses must occur sooner rather than later. In those cases where opportunities are perceived, then leaders must act. Lead-time is also important to organizational success; hence, visionary leaders must have their “radar screens” up at all times. They must identify emerging or potential opportunities, prepare strategies and marshal the resources needed, and get in and out (serve or produce at opportune times) to maximize success or achievement. (pp. 75-76).

Visionary Criteria

A vision that a leader constructs is an image, an idea, or mental model of a future organization—its processes, its services or products, etc. This has been the thrust of the discussion in this chapter. With this in mind, what is the criteria, or perhaps better stated, what is fundamental to a vision as conceived and realized by a leader? The criteria of a vision can be somewhat exhaustive, but such a discussion or analysis inevitably leads to ever-increasing complexities and seemingly endless explanations. Thus, here, in this section, an attempt to succinctly express what constitutes a vision, i.e., one constructed by a visionary leader, will be given. To do this, seven criteria or “special properties” of a vision will be enumerated. (See Nanus, 1992, pp. 28-30).

1) Appropriateness. A vision for an organization must fit appropriately its “history, culture, and values.” It must be a vision that takes into account the past and the current status of the organization and, at the same time, be something suitable and realistic for the organization’s foreseeable future.

2) Idealistic. A vision must convey something which is hopeful and positive. A vision should make a difference that is value-laden and reflects “ high ideas.” It should be a vision that is noteworthy and productive, perhaps even something that is momentous or revolutionary.

3) Purposeful and Credible. A vision must also be purposeful or focused on achieving some plausible aim. The vision should be clear and give followers and affected others a meaningful sense of direction. Is the vision and the path to its realization a valid one? Does it begat true focus and offer a better future?

4) Inspirational. A vision must motivate people to believe and join in, become part of the making of a better tomorrow. The vision of a new organizational “push” should inspire individuals and encourage them to be fully committed. People should be energized and eager to bring about the vision.

5) Understandable. Is the vision clear and comprehensible? If it is ambiguous or sketchy, or simply too difficult to understand, then it is a vision that is lost in its very beginnings and is doomed to failure. Leaders must work particularly hard to communicate a vision that can not only be grasped, but also embraced by others. A leader must therefore be knowledgeable of every aspect related to the vision and capable of relaying this to others.

6) Unique. Every organization is distinctive in some way or fashion. An organization is somehow exceptional in its history, traditions, activities, etc. A vision must unavoidably reflect this uniqueness.

7) Ambitious. Visions overreach and are necessarily bold, resolute, and often sweeping in nature. They require courage and steadfastness. Frequently, they require “sacrifices and emotional investment.” (pp. 28-29).

The Vision Review

Nanus (1992) points out that all organizations, private or public, are moving forward in time or as he states it “every organization has its own momentum” (p. 56). This momentum may be slow- or fast-paced depending on an organization’s purpose, processes, and outcomes.

Plotting organizational movement is essential to knowing its “status” at any given point in time. This plotting of momentum, in other words, allows leaders to measure and comprehend where an organization is and where it is likely to go. The “future tense” aspect of the plotting of momentum is revealing in that it indicates where the organizational vision is, that is its status, but equally important, “what it indeed is to be.” Hence, this charting or plotting of organizational momentum is of great significance as it relates to leaders and their vision of an organization.

Asking four key questions are associated with this plotting (or gauging) of organizational momentum as to where and what a vision is. These questions are what Nanus calls “the vision audit” (pp. 56-57). They are:

1) Does the organization have a clear and distinct vision? In what way is this vision stated? If there is a stated vision, then what exactly is it?

2) If the organization continues as is, or “on its current path,” where in fact will it be in the next ten years? Concluding this, is this where the organization should be?

3) Are all stakeholders (workers, followers, etc.) connected with the organization aware of and versed on the vision? Are these people in the organization on-board with the vision? In other words, are they motivated and committed to it?

4) Per the direction of the organization, are the processes, systems, procedures, activities, and other organizational components supportive of the vision?

In passing, it should be acknowledged that based on an extensive literature review, including observations of public agencies and units, hard evidence for organizations’ possessing a clear and distinct vision is small. And, with regard to the exercising of a “vision review or audit,” evidence here is additionally limited to only a few organizations. One consistent problem observed among public agencies is that often the mission statement of the agency is mistakenly called a vision statement.