Business Leadership 9: Trait of Creative and Symbolic Visionary

This continues our series on business leadership by exploring the traits of a leader

Leadership traits help you fill the roles of leadership more effectively. We already examined several outstanding books on excellence in previous posts. I still recommend Built to Last, Good to Great, True North, Principle-Centered Leadership, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Outliers, and others. They outline traits and habits of leaders. In the next few posts we will also highlight several traits of leaders. We begin, today, with the trait of creative and symbolic visionary.

Traits of a Visionary

Several authors outline the traits of a visionary:

• Corinne McLaughlin says visionary leaders provide
  • A commitment to core spiritual values
  • A clear, inspirational vision
  • Respectful, empowering relationships
  • Innovative, courageous action

Ivy Sea answers What Does it Take to Be a Truly Visionary Leader?

• Real vision lifts us out of the muck and mire into higher realms of human potential and possibility
• A visionary helps awaken and direct the inner strength of the people
• A visionary envisions another possibility and hope
• The visionary is a conduit between higher thought and our physical reality

The Benefits and Disadvantages of Visionary Leadership

The International Association of Business and Management Professionals’ The Advantages of Visionary Leadership in Organizations outlines the advantages of visionary leadership:

• Visionary leaders integrate the task orientation style and people orientation style of leadership in a qualitatively new level of performance
• Visionary leadership brings out the best in people and makes them perform beyond their imagined limitations
• Visionary leadership empowers all the members to be strong to face all challenges despite the odds

Iris Mote listed one disadvantage: Visionary Leaders with Purposes are Not Easy to Replace. How Many Can you Name Out There?

Paul Weisenfeld wrote Economic Development: A Case for Visionary Leadership.

Shelley Frost of Demand Media lists The Disadvantages of Charismatic Leadership:

• Reliance on the Leader
• Perception about the Leader
• Lack of Clarity
• Lack of Successors and Visionaries

Analyze the elements of this trait that you possess and those you may want to acquire.

Tuesday we will visit how effective influencers improve businesses