Today, I want to talk to both the Visionary and the Integrator. The question we want to answer is who holds the Visionary accountable?
The short answer is the Integrator. It’s you, Integrators. You need to hold the Visionary accountable. Maybe the shorter answer is nobody – but really it must be you. It’s got to be the Integrator. You must be strong enough, forceful enough, and not weak. You’ve got to be forceful enough to stand up to the Visionary and hold them accountable.
All freedom comes from restriction. Picture the Visionary as this wild mustang that’s running across the land. We want to put some nice wide fences out there, and let him run free within that framework.
There must be an agreement between the Visionary and Integrator on a couple of different points. We need to establish how much accountability there should be and we’re going to do it in the Same Page Meeting™. There are two things to be clear on. First, how accountable does the Visionary want to be held? You’ll find that some Visionaries want to be held highly accountable – while some want more rope.
The second thing we want to be clear on is how to tell the Visionary “no”. There are some ways that won’t feel good to them. If you haven’t established ground rules, it’s going to be frustrating and create more friction. It’s almost like having a “safe word”. Pre-agree that when you need to tell them “no”, that’s how you’ll say it. This will trigger them into a state of listening and being open to accept it.
As a general rule, Visionaries don’t have Rocks. When Visionaries have Rocks, it usually ends up very frustrating for the Visionary and the rest of the team. We want to harness their power to support the team on their rocks and to deliver on the accountabilities they’ve signed up for.
One last note. If the Visionary won’t behave, listen to the Integrator or respond to the Integrator’s efforts to hold them accountable – there are two things that can happen. First of all, I want the integrator to see the video we did on mutual respect. That lays out what you need to think about. The second note is a rare exception. When there’s an Owner’s Box™ or a Board and the Visionary just won’t listen or play by the rules – the Board or Owner’s Box™ needs to step in. Again, I want to qualify that this is a rare exception.
Three key points:
- The integrator holds the Visionary accountable.
- We want to let that Visionary mustang run – within wide fences and structures that we’ve set in place.
- If the Visionary is unwilling to play by the rules, the Integrator has a choice to either leave or call in the Owners or Board to get the Visionary back on track.
Come see us on RocketFuelNow.com. Take the Visionary and Integrator assessments. See where you’re great. See where you could use some help. We’ve been having some great discussions with other Visionaries & Integrators over on LinkedIn and Facebook. Regardless of where you are in your process, I encourage you to join the conversation! And finally, read Rocket Fuel. If you’ve already read Rocket Fuel, and you liked it, we’d love to see a review from you on Amazon. We’d really love to hear what you think.
Until next time, Go ROCKET!
Cheers,
Mark
