What You’ll Learn: Discover exactly what visionary leadership is, why it’s beneficial, and how you can start to become one yourself. Get key insights into traits and examples of this type of leadership.
Visionary leadership is a leadership style that focuses on forward-thinking and future growth. Visionary leaders tend to inspire others through traits like courage, adaptability, strong communication skills, high emotional intelligence, a commitment to lifelong learning, and more. They are also likely to innovate and lead teams toward pathways of growth and success. With effort, anyone can learn to develop visionary leadership skills and empower teams.
When you think of a profound leader, someone who has led an organization through good times and bad times, what kind of qualities do you imagine them having? Persistence? Authenticity? Critical thinking?
When we think of successful leaders, we tend to think of someone with the ability to help others accomplish a shared vision. Though we might not know the term, we’re thinking of a visionary leader—someone who can innovate with the future in mind.
Visionary leadership isn’t just a nice-sounding buzzword, either. It’s a staple of successful organizational guidance, especially in times of change. With technology continuing to progress, this type of leadership style is more important than ever. A visionary leader can help an organization stay true to its goals without getting caught up in shiny-object syndrome.
In this article, we’ll discuss what a visionary leadership style looks like and the key qualities visionary leaders have. We’ll also provide some examples of what visionary leadership looks like in practice.
What Is Visionary Leadership?
Put simply, visionary leadership is the act of an authority figure inspiring others toward a common goal via innovation, collaboration, and clear communication.
The term was first coined by psychologist Daniel Goleman in 2002 as part of his six styles of leadership framework. Goleman defines visionary leadership succinctly in an HBR article on leadership as “the ability to take charge and inspire with a compelling vision.”
Notice that Goleman’s definition of visionary leadership does not include the leader making their staff follow their ideas. The very nature of the goals and visions they create for their organization is compelling. This means that staff can’t help but feel pulled towards them. A key marker of a visionary leader is someone who can create or “cast” an inspiring vision. But, what exactly is a vision in the context of business leadership?
What Is a Leadership Vision?
Vision is a word that we use a lot in the business world, sometimes without entirely understanding its meaning. In the context of leading others, a vision is a dream, direction, or goal for a company or organization. It’s the key driver for company culture, the why behind top-level decisions and ultimately what makes working for a company worth it.
An example of a leadership vision for a cleaning company might be “helping families love the spaces they live in.” Notice that a vision doesn’t include details as to the “how” of a business, only the key idea that inspires the business to continue.
A critical component of being a visionary and inspirational leader is having a compelling vision. But there are other important qualities most visionary leaders have, too. Let’s move on to what those are.
Top Qualities of a Visionary Leader
Here’s an outline of the most impactful traits visionary leaders demonstrate and share regardless of the industry they work in. Do you recognize any of them in yourself?
Strong Communication Skills
Powerful visionary leaders know how to invite others to share in their vision. They are strong communicators that can convey their desires, goals and dreams clearly to others. Strong communication goes hand-in-hand with inspiring others toward a shared outcome.
High Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Visionary leaders usually have a high emotional intelligence, or EQ. This trait allows them to be aware of their own emotions and those of others. A critical trait, it allows insight into which actions they can take to better motivate those around them.
Importantly, high EQ allows visionary leaders to lead with empathy. For example, they empathetically notice when team members might need more guidance and connection. Leaders can then organically create tight trust bonds with staff. Building trust, in turn, helps team members desire to stay on board with the company vision—even if things might not be going to plan.
Ability to Inspire and Motivate Others
Being goal-oriented people, visionary leaders often have an uncanny knack for inspiring and motivating those around them toward a shared goal or idea. They also understand how to connect specific team members’ strengths to furthering the company vision. Successful visionary leaders know that their goals can’t be accomplished alone, nor is it worth it to try.
Adaptable and Open to Change
Knowing when to alter the course of their vision is a trait successful visionary leaders share. They’re adaptable when the situation calls for it and are always ready to hear new ideas.
Long-term Strategic Thinking
While visionary leaders tend to be open to change, they are resolute in their ability to stay undeterred from their long-term goals. Even if they go through setbacks, these leaders know how to take them in stride and stay focused on the big picture.
Courageous
The best visionary leaders are bold. Indeed, creating a vision for how a company is to operate for its potential lifespan is no small feat. These leaders would rather fail trying to accomplish their goals than not try at all.
Committed to Continuous Learning
Continuing to improve themselves through continuous learning is a necessity for visionary leaders. They have an insatiable drive to keep their knowledge, skills, and social impact up-to-date. This means that their vision remains relevant and evolves as they do. If a visionary leader isn’t continually learning, their vision stands at risk of becoming obsolete over time.
Related: Get inspired with powerful “never stop learning” quotes.
Examples of Visionary Leaders
We’ve looked at what visionary leadership is and the characteristics of a visionary leader. Now let’s see examples of what visionary leadership really looks like in the workplace.
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs and his partner Steve Wozniak started the ground-breaking technology brand Apple in the 1970s, which led to the creation of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and personal computer—some of the most celebrated technological achievements of the 20th century. Jobs was well-known for his “think outside the box” mentality, and his ability to come up with profound ideas cemented his place in history as a visionary leader.
Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg shifted the tides for women in leadership by becoming the first woman in history to join Facebook’s board of directors and by acting as Meta’s COO until 2022. Although Sandberg made great strides in her technology career, her visionary leadership traits—such as emotional intelligence and ability to inspire others—were put on display with the publication of her bestselling book “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead.” Sandberg had a vision for inspiring women to new career heights.
How to Develop Visionary Leadership Traits
Knowing what visionary leadership entails and knowing how to inspire others to work towards a shared purpose are two distinct actions. Now that we’ve discussed what visionary leadership is and what it looks like in practice, here are some tips on how you can develop visionary leadership traits.
- Know your organization’s mission/vision/purpose. Becoming someone who inspires others has no effect if you don’t have a direction. If you don’t know your organization’s mission and/or vision statement, familiarize yourself with it. If one doesn’t exist, create one.
- Develop empathy. Guiding others implicitly requires knowing where they are and how they are feeling. Becoming more empathetic can feel like a challenge at first, but taking simple steps, such as learning to actively listen, can go a long way.
- Cultivate a growth mindset. Visionary leaders aren’t held back by setbacks or failures. Instead, they turn their attention to what lies ahead. You can have the same growth mindset by simply changing your beliefs about failure. Rather than seeing failure as an endpoint, view it as a learning opportunity.
- Learn to communicate well. You can only lead people so far if you can’t communicate your vision properly. Take time to improve your communication skills by making small improvements in your everyday discussions. Taking more time to listen than to speak, writing down notes on important ideas to show you respect others’ opinions, and simply double-checking emails before you hit send are all ways to improve your communication ability.
Related: Discover how DISC assessments can help your team thrive.
Final Thoughts on Visionary Leadership
Visionary leadership is a type of leadership that points outside of the leader, to a greater purpose or idea that all members of an organization can latch onto. That’s why it’s so effective: it’s a leadership style that isn’t all about the leader. Leaders are focused on future growth and goals and lean towards collaboration and communication to get there.
That said, cultivating leadership traits in a world that prioritizes fast improvements can feel overwhelming. If you need more resources, explore a wealth of personal development insights from legendary leader Jim Rohn on his website. Kick off your leadership development journey with a free e-book.
Or, if you’re ready to get started towards fresh goals as a visionary leader, check out our powerful ebook, Setting Goals for Success to gain valuable practical insights.
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