Often an organization begins with a person's vision. That person gives direction to a group of people who have gathered around that vision and have committed themselves to a unified mission. Both community and movement occur as they pursue their cause.
On the other hand, organizational leaders typically step in later to help create stability, continuity, and structure. For them, success is built around predictability—analyzing and systematizing cause and effect.
Erwin McManus points out that, “Unfortunately, in organizational leadership value is found in someone who can structure and manage a complex environment, rather than in someone who can create one that needs to be harnessed.”
While both directional and organizational leadership styles have their strengths, the former creates an environment for positive change whereas the latter tends to limit change. Directional leaders create communities, and organizational leaders corporations. Directional leaders empower and release new leaders whereas organizational leaders focus more on management and placing people into specific slots or roles.
As organizations grow they need to pay attention to these dynamics by:
- Not weeding out directional, visionary leaders over time, but rather, allowing them to flow with their entrepreneurial gifting alongside organizational leaders.
- Harnessing complex environments through organizational processes but building into those systems the ability for continuous evaluation and upgrades.
- Prioritizing people over corporate systems, remembering that the greatest assets in any organization are the people.
- Keeping the original vision front and center, recognizing that energy flows from that and not from efficiencies and procedures.
What would you add to that list? Share them with me via email.
