Visionary Leadership
There exists a type of visionary business leadership that spurs positive change in societies, commercial enterprises and governments. These leaders are able to forecast how innovations will enable such changes, articulate the vision and inspire employees, customers and partners. They’ve the ability to get people aligned and motivated to contribute and turn the vision into reality. I’ve had the privilege to work for organizations with leaders possessing this awe-inspiring leadership style.
In early 2000’s John Chambers at Cisco would masterfully paint the picture of a future where internet networking, voice and video would fundamentally change how we live, work and play. A decade and a half before Apps like FaceTime became commonplace, I distinctly recall watching John exuberantly share with an audience of thousands how life-like video conferencing, which had just been made possible in the enterprise space would become commonplace in the consumer world; how geographically distributed families and friends would watch Super Bowl together, active duty military personal would participate in family celebrations and patients in remote villages would see a physician over video by a simple click of a button.
When I was contemplating joining Microsoft, the hiring manager sent me a video by Satya Nadella describing how data, analytics and cloud would enable businesses to process signals at scale and inform strategy and investments near real time; how AI would help lift farmers out of poverty because it was possible to analyze farm conditions and boost farm yield and quality. I was sold! I wanted to help execute this vision. Satya and his senior leaders set the tone for company direction - The mission of empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more is a source of inspiration. It’s a privilege to contribute to customer and partners and see the results materialize all around us.
By creating a unifying vision for an organization these leaders bring people throughout the company together around a common goal. Personally, this north star is a source of motivation for me and I believe it matters in how the organization functions at every level. Great managers are able to take the vision and translate it to what it means for their teams. When you see your day-to-day work linking back to the company vision, it builds a deep sense of contribution on the front lines.
Recommended reading: https://hbr.org/2019/04/you-dont-have-to-be-ceo-to-be-a-visionary-leader
If we can dream it, we can achieve it!
