The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Advocacy estimates about 30.2 million small businesses in the US. These companies are constantly competing and looking for competitive advantages that give them an edge over their rivals. Visionary leadership can be your company’s most significant competitive advantage. Therefore, it would help to focus on honing your innovative leadership skills to contribute to your company’s success. Here are some of the ways to be a more visionary business leader.
- Take reality-informed decisions with an eye on the future
Image CreditAn accurate and insightful view of your organization’s present reality is non-negotiable for crafting a realistic vision. Therefore, defining reality is your first task as a leader since you cannot be clear about what your company will look like in the future if you cannot be clear about its present state. For instance, in the initial stages of launching your company, you may not have the resources to invest in an office building. Consequently, you can invest in a custom built shed as your office space to avoid all the expenses and risks involved in buying or renting office space as a new business. Then, you can convert this multifunctional shed into a warehouse, storage facility, or retail shop as you expand over the years, depending on your company’s needs.
- Adopt an outsider’s perspective
Visionary leaders understand that an outsider’s perspective is critical to analyzing an organization objectively and questioning issues insiders often take for granted. As such, it is essential to adopt an outsider’s perspective to gain a unique form of enlightenment that can help you develop new ways of thinking at your organization and develop your vision even further. An outsider’s perspective can help you re-examine all of your company’s practices that endure because “we’ve always done it like that.” Therefore, getting rid of these sacred cows can help you become a visionary leader who can entertain fresh ideas for new products, customer relations, and overall enterprise innovation.
- Communicate your vision
Effective communication is undoubtedly vital to overall success in every organization. Workplace communication statistics reveal that about 86% of executives and workers cite the lack of effective communication and collaboration as the leading causes of workplace failures. Consequently, share your vision clearly to prevent it from failing due to a lack of effective communication. You cannot achieve the vision on your own, so telling your staff about it will help garner genuine commitment to making these goals a reality. Also, never adopt a heavy-handed approach when sharing your vision since this may solicit a degree of compliance but not garner full endorsement and involvement. Finally, personify the vision to make it easier for your staff to believe in it and work towards its attainment.
- Connect disparate ideas
Innovation typically occurs due to the reapplication of existing technology in a different context. Therefore, visionary leadership demands connecting disparate theories, concepts, and thoughts to produce genuinely ground-breaking solutions. For instance, Uber was founded due to a simple reapplication of GPS technology in public transport, revolutionizing modern transportation as we know it.
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