{"id":29966,"date":"2023-02-18T04:10:29","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T09:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/?p=29966"},"modified":"2023-02-11T04:27:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-11T09:27:54","slug":"why-visionary-leadership-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/body-of-knowledge\/why-visionary-leadership-fails\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Visionary Leadership Fails"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Summary.   <\/strong>Visionary leadership is widely seen as key to strategic change. That\u2019s because visionary leadership does not just set the strategic direction \u2014 it tells a story about why the change is worth pursuing and inspires people to embrace the change. But research finds that the positive impact of visionary leadership breaks down when middle managers aren\u2019t aligned with top management\u2019s strategic vision. This can cause strategic change efforts to slow down or even fail. When middle managers were aligned with top management\u2019s strategic vision, things played out as the widespread view of visionary leadership would suggest: the more these managers engaged in visionary leadership (by communicating their vision for the future and articulating where they wanted their team to be in five years,) the greater the shared understanding of strategy in their team, and the more the team was committed to strategy execution. For managers that were misaligned with the company strategy, however, there was a dark side of visionary leadership became evident. The more these misaligned managers displayed visionary leadership, the less strategic alignment and commitment were observed among their teams.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Visionary leadership is widely seen as key to strategic change. That\u2019s because visionary leadership does not just set the strategic direction \u2014 it tells a story about why<\/em> the change is worth pursuing and inspires people to embrace the change. Not surprisingly, then, science<\/a> and practice<\/a> have a very positive view of visionary leadership as a critical leadership competency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But our research finds that the positive impact of visionary leadership breaks down when middle managers aren\u2019t aligned with top management\u2019s strategic vision. This can cause strategic change efforts to slow down or even fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we think of visionary leaders, our first blush response is to think of CEOs. Widely celebrated people like Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, and Oprah Winfrey come to mind. But visionary leadership is not just important for senior managers; it also matters for middle and lower level managers, who play a key role in carrying out strategic change. Their ability to inspire their own teams and create strategic alignment \u2014 a shared understanding of and commitment to the company\u2019s strategy \u2014 within them is a core element in successful strategy execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why company leadership frameworks typically list visionary leadership as a key leadership competency for managers. For example, Google\u2019s data-driven Project Oxygen identified visionary leadership<\/a> as one of the eight traits of stellar middle managers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this emphasis on visionary leadership relies on an untenable assumption: that managers outside the C-suite are always aligned with company strategy. What if they are not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary.   Visionary leadership is widely seen as key to strategic change. That\u2019s because visionary leadership does not just set the strategic direction \u2014 it tells a story about why the change is worth pursuing and inspires people to embrace the change. But research finds that the positive impact of visionary leadership breaks down when middle managers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1203,"featured_media":24057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[336,624],"tags":[34,997],"class_list":["post-29966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-body-of-knowledge","category-thought-food","tag-leadership","tag-culture"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":336,"label":"Body of Knowledge"},{"value":624,"label":"Thought Food"}],"post_tag":[{"value":34,"label":"Leadership"},{"value":997,"label":"Culture"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/HBR-LogoGraphic.png",768,432,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"HBR.org","author_link":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/author\/hbr-org\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":336,"name":"Body of Knowledge","slug":"body-of-knowledge","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":336,"taxonomy":"category","description":"The collected Body Of Knowledge<\/strong><\/em> of the Operational Excellence Society.","parent":0,"count":1243,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","order":"0","cat_ID":336,"category_count":1243,"category_description":"The collected Body Of Knowledge<\/strong><\/em> of the Operational Excellence Society.","cat_name":"Body of Knowledge","category_nicename":"body-of-knowledge","category_parent":0},{"term_id":624,"name":"Thought Food","slug":"thought-food","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":624,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Curated articles from various sources.","parent":0,"count":746,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","order":"0","cat_ID":624,"category_count":746,"category_description":"Curated articles from various sources.","cat_name":"Thought Food","category_nicename":"thought-food","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":34,"name":"Leadership","slug":"leadership","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":34,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"Leadership<\/b>, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or\u00a0organization\u00a0to \"lead\", influence or guide other individuals,\u00a0teams, or entire\u00a0organizations.","parent":0,"count":252,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","order":"0"},{"term_id":997,"name":"Culture","slug":"culture","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":997,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"Culture<\/b> is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior<\/a>,\u00a0institutions<\/a>, and\u00a0norms<\/a>\u00a0found in\u00a0human<\/a>\u00a0societies<\/a>, as well as the\u00a0knowledge<\/a>,\u00a0beliefs<\/a>,\u00a0arts<\/a>,\u00a0laws<\/a>,\u00a0customs<\/a>, capabilities, and\u00a0habits<\/a>\u00a0of the individuals in these groups.<\/sup>","parent":0,"count":47,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","order":"0"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29966"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29981,"href":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29966\/revisions\/29981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opexsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}