Blogs

I have always had characteristics of Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD. Love big ideas, reaching for the stars, and building things. Pretty good at seeing how things are interrelated. Have a critical mind in both the best and worst of ways. My way of looking at the world lets me instinctively know that we can always make things better. It also leaves me paranoid about someone else getting there first. To me, this potential for improvement is obvious. Look at where the world is today versus just ten years ago. Look at the amazing new products we now take for granted like the iPhone and iPad. Think about the fact that billions of us now have access to almost an infinite amount of knowledge and consequently an infinite array of opportunities. It’s incredible, if not a bit overwhelming, and it’s all due to man’s insatiable need to make things better for himself.

My passion for making things better combined with my love of the big picture means I often find myself trying to do too many things, losing focus, and creating confusion and a little chaos. I have what we refer to at EOS® as a “visionary” mind versus an “integrator” mind. This “visionary” mind can be its own worst enemy.

Looking back at my career, it’s clear I have been at my best when this visionary “Yang” was counter balanced by a “Yin.” These “Yins,” and I have been blessed with many, have helped me focus and execute in a disciplined and thoughtful manner. I sought out these partners because I instinctively knew, and still do, that I needed a Yin for my Yang to flourish.

Some people refer to these Yin/Yang teams as inside-outside leadership pairs. As I mentioned above, at EOS we call them “Visionaries” and “Integrators.” One of the key things we’ve learned during more than a decade of working closely with hundreds of senior leadership teams is that many of the best, most successful, and most enduring companies had both a Visionary and an Integrator. You can probably think of numerous examples of V/I teams that support this observation. My exemplars include: Apple’s Jobs and Wozniak, and later Jobs and Cook; Hewlett and Packard; Intel’s Moore and Grove; Google’s Page and Brin; Disney’s Walt and Roy, and later Eisner and Wells; Berkshire’s Buffet and Munger; Microsoft’s Gates and Allen, and later Gates and Balmer; and others in that same vein. Have your own exemplars?  Please share them in the comments section below.

We all get that we cannot be great at all things or be all things to all people but how many of us leaders still try? And to what end?

Over the next several blogs, we will enumerate the characteristics of Visionaries and Integrators. We’ll also cover why most organizations eventually falter without a strong V/I team, and what to do if you don’t have both or lose one. When the series is done, we hope you will have a pretty good sense for why V/I teams are not only powerful but almost essential for enduring success.

Until then, be well.