Blogs

In our last two blogs, we introduced the notion that many of the most successful and enduring companies had or have an inside/outside leadership pair—what we call a Visionary and Integrator team (V/I Team). This insight is supported by our work at EOS® with over 600 companies as well as by some incredible research undertaken by David Thomson for his insightful books Blueprint to a Billion and Mastering The 7 Essentials of High-Growth Companies (highly recommended reads). In his books, David details why having an inside/outside leadership pair is one of “The 7 Essential” ingredients to success. This idea is based upon his detailed study of 410 companies that went public since 1980 and reached $1 billion in revenues. Frankly, it all seems fairly obvious when one thinks about all of the things a leadership team needs to do in order to build a strong, growing, and enduring business—especially in times like today where it feels like there is an unprecedented amount of change taking place. In today’s blog we will talk about how to best organize around, and what makes a great, V/I Team.

Once a leadership team decides it wants to lead utilizing the V/I model, the Visionary and the Integrator must get crystal clear as to who does what. Our experience suggests that each of their roles needs to be distinctive and complementary for everyone’s sake. As the old saying goes, “when two people are accountable, no one is accountable.”

As for who does what, our experience suggests the most effective structure is one in which the Integrator reports to the Visionary and all of the functional heads report directly to the Integrator. This structure enables each of them to optimize their Unique Abilities™. For the Visionary, this structure enables him or her to focus on doing the things he or she loves doing:

• Leading through example
• Meeting with people (current and prospective employees) and listening
• Driving the culture
• Working on the next Big Idea
• Developing and nurturing Big Relationships
• Solving Big Problems
• Staying on top of the industry

For the Integrator, this structure enables her or him to focus on:

• Leading by managing
• Harmonizing the way the functions work together
• Optimizing resources
• Removing obstacles and barriers
• Driving the business plan
• Hitting the numbers (P&L, Scorecards)
• Overseeing special projects
• Making sure that all of the right things are being done across the organization

So what are the key ingredients of a great V/I team?

• Each has to genuinely posses the characteristics we enumerated in our last blog, otherwise they will not be truly complimentary
• Each must have a huge amount of respect for the other as an individual and as a professional, otherwise they simply will not trust the other to do his or her job and the entire structure will breakdown
• Each must truly embody and embrace the organizations culture, otherwise they will have conflicting values
• Each must be ready, willing, and able to make the other look good, especially when it comes to the other’s short comings, otherwise, neither will be able to truly concentrate all of their energies on leveraging their Unique Abilities™

In short, at their core great V/I teams are, as David Thomson wrote: “the yin and yang, the weave and the warp, the bacon and eggs—and without the dynamic of compatibility their companies could not have made it to the top.”

In one of our future blogs we are going to talk about the notion that at their core, really strong and enduring organizations are both Smart & Healthy. In many respects, while both the Integrator and the Visionary are responsible for building a Smart & Healthy organization, I hope it is now clear to you which role I think is responsible for driving each of these two perpetual needs.

While I haven’t written it yet, I suspect the there will be one more part to this Yin & Yang and the Visionary & Integrator series, until then…

Be well.