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Paul McCord

“I started this company four years ago.  We’ve grown but not nearly as quickly as I envisioned, and honestly, we really can’t grow right now because we just don’t seem to have the processes and procedures in place and I feel I’m stretched to the breaking point.  I see exactly where we need to be going and how we can blow away the competition; I just can’t figure out how to get there.”

Although that’s a direct quote from a recent conversation with the owner of service business in Omaha, I’ve had that same conversation with more small and mid-size business owners and CEO’s than I can remember.  They believe they have the right product or service, the right market, and the vision of where they want to go and wonder why things don’t seem to be falling in line.

Obviously there could be a number of common, identifiable issues that are hindering their growth and success–and their usually are a number of them.  But in many cases I find most issues emanate from a much more fundamental issue within the organization–leadership.

We often think of leadership as a single thing–the ability to get people to follow, to work towards a common goal.  Although that definition works on many levels, within an organization there are three types of leadership that are indispensible to create a rapidly growing, dynamic organization.  Although each leadership type is needed in mature organizations, they are mandatory in any organization that seeks rapid growth and expansion.  Without these three leaders, organizations tend to struggle, and if they grow at all, growth tends to be slow and painful.

The Visionary Leader
At the heart of any rapid growth organization is a visionary; one who envisions what could and should be.  The visionary leader works more from inspiration and imagination than from the practical.  Boldness and the impossible are at the forefront not limited by conventional thinking or industry norms.  The visionary leader wants to create more than simply build; she wants to make something that hasn’t been before rather than simply make the existing better.  The visionary leader sees the future and wants to create it NOW.

The Managerial Leader
Vision is wonderful but useless without someone who can take the vision and implement the structure that will allow the organization to turn the vision of what should be into what is.  Sometimes the visionary leader is quite capable as the managerial leader also; very often though that isn’t the case.  Often the very traits that make the visionary leader the visionary leader hinder him or her from also being the managerial leader.  Their ability to envision what isn’t, that is the imagination and ability to think unconventionally, stands in opposition to the down to earth practicality needed in the managerial leader.  The managerial leader is more than simply a good manager; the managerial leader has the ability to take a vision and turn it into processes and structures that move it from the realm of possible into the practical.  

The Implementation Leader
Just as vision leadership is useless without managerial leadership, it is completely impotent without a leader who can implement the vision–the one who can inspire and drive the organization to realize its potential, the one we so often think of when we think of a leader.  Many times the visionary leader’s passion transforms them into the implementation leader–but not always (think of those visionary leaders who started the company but who are not the CEO but are instead the head of research and development).  In many organizations the implementation leader is neither a creator nor manager but may instead come out of the ranks of marketing or sales.  The implementation leader is the company evangelist, the one who takes the vision and turns it into excitement, sales and growth.

An organization with all three leaders in place is capable of not only rapid growth but of having an immense impact on its market and community, at time changing the very nature of an industry–think Steve Jobs.

The difficulty for any organization is finding and engaging a full complement of leadership.  Seldom are all three leadership types found in a single individual, although those individuals do exist.  More common are individuals who are both the visionary and implementation leader although even that combination is by no means a given as there are many companies founded by a visionary leader whose success or failure depended ultimately on bringing in a managerial and implementation leader.

Are you a visionary leader whose company is struggling?  Has your earth shattering vision failed to come to fruition?  Maybe like so many others, you’ve failed to recognize that your company’s success needs far more than your visionary leadership.  If you’re not a leader capable of leading in all three areas, recognize your limitations and find the additional leaders your organization needs.  Vision without the processes and procedures is no vision at all.  Likewise without the implementation leader to lead the charge and create the gung-ho team, an organization stands little chance of reaching its full rapid growth potential.

Rapid growth organizations call for a unique combination of leadership skills that few single individuals possess.  Consequently, the sign of the true visionary leader is their ability to envision a full leadership team within their organization and then finding a way to turn that vision into reality.

 
Paul McCord is the president of McCord and Associates, a  Texas based international sales training, coaching, and consulting company. He is the author of the Amazon and Barnes and Noble best-selling book on referral generation, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons, 2008), and SuperStar Selling: 12 Keys to Becoming a Sales SuperStar.www.powerreferralselling.com

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