The dark side of visionary leadership
In the last 20 years, one of the shifts that’s taken place in leadership and management is a shift from shoring up weaknesses to helping people discover and build their strengths. There’s more assessments to help us discover ourselves than every before, and I’m all for it. At the same time, it’s important for leaders to understand that every strength has a dark side to it. For visionary leaders, because we sit at the top, it’s even more important to discover the dark side of our leadership.
A primary dark side to visionary leadership is how we can stir up chaos.
I’ve learned there are two kinds of chaos.
Necessary Chaos: This is the kind of chaos that’s necessary in a startup environment. Les McKeown, author of Predictable Success, tells us that the primary job of a startup is to go from “early struggle” to “fun.” The early struggle is about all the chaos entrepreneurs need to push through (early funding, finding a viable market, experimenting, and iterating) in order to get to fun. This is necessary chaos.
Unnecessary Chaos: This chaos exists for no good reason. It’s the product of disorganization which leads to inefficiencies, frustration, and overall declining morale among a team. What’s dangerous about unnecessary chaos, aside from the obvious, is that most people won’t be able to figure this one out. We’ll spin our wheels as people leave our team.
Visionary leadership can create necessary chaos that propels an organization forward or unnecessary chaos that disrupts their own organization. Our ideas can do both at the same time, which can be deceiving for visionary leaders. We’ll believe it’s the right direction, but won’t understand why those around us aren’t fully on board or why they can’t get it together.
Becoming aware of the dark side of visionary leadership helps us understand that we need to put new ideas and new initiatives through the right processes. We need to have the right conversations with the right people at the right time. We need to allow those gifted at strategy to build out the plan of attack. We need to learn how to entrust and empower while not giving everything away. There is an important place for visionary leaders to still have a say and shape it.
What are some other dark sides to your strengths?
How will this awareness change how you lead?
Summary
Stick to your strengths but become aware of your dark sides.
Visionary leaders often unintentionally create unnecessary chaos that lead to frustration for all parties.
Understanding how to make up for this gap can make the difference between controlling and empowering.
Want some support with that?
Discover how powerful leaders are supported by powerful coaches. Let’s have a chat.
