Today, I’m talking to the Visionaries out there as well as other members of the leadership team. I want to share with you a short and sweet philosophy that we have about Visionaries and Rocks. It’s basically this:
The Visionary should have no Rocks.
There is one exception. When the Visionary is sitting in other seats on the Accountability Chart™ they may have Rocks. They might be the head of operations, head of sales, or head of finance. If they’re sitting in one of those other seats, they can have Rocks from that seat until they get all the way out of that seat and get another leadership team member into it. However, when they’re sitting exclusively in the Visionary seat, they should have no Rocks.
Why is that? The reality about most Visionaries is that they’re simply incapable of focusing on something that intently for that long. Their Rock ends up getting managed by another member of the leadership team anyways. So let’s call it like it is from the beginning. Let’s put that Rock on another member of the leadership team. Let them project manage it, let them be the champion for it, and free the Visionary to add spice and flavor to all the different Rocks.
Another thing that may be going on is the Visionary feeling like their leadership team is just not there yet. They can’t handle these Rocks. They might want to step in and handle some of the Rocks for them. Visionaries, if this is the case, I want to challenge you on a couple of points:
First, do you have a leadership team or do you have a leader “sheep” team?
The other thing I want you to consider is whether you are really letting go. Are you letting go or do you feel a need to hang on to things that you should be passing off to your leadership team?
In a perfect case, we want the Visionary to be free to add their spice to all Rocks. That’s where the company will get the most value. What I see in my clients is that when we do get to that point in the session and we’re going around pulling Rocks out of the group, I’ll come to the Visionary and ask, “Okay, what Rocks do you have?” A big smile usually comes across their face because they can say, “Hey, the Visionary has no rocks”, and that’s a really great day for them.
Two key points to wrap this one up:
- The Visionary has no Rocks unless they are also sitting in another seat on the Accountability Chart™.
- We want to free the Visionary to add flavor across all the Rocks.
Next Step:
Take the Crystallizer Assessment and discover your unique leadership abilities. Decide if you are a Visionary, Integrator, or neither!
YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES