Varvara Grankova

A visionary leader does not simply set strategic direction, but communicates why change is necessary and inspires people to embrace it. Visionary leadership is considered an essential leadership competency.

But our research shows that visionary management is ineffective if middle managers do not share the strategic vision of top management. As a result, the implementation of strategic change is slow or even fails.

Visionary leadership is important not only for senior management, but also for middle and lower-level managers. Their ability to inspire subordinates and ensure teamwork (i.e., a common understanding and commitment to implementing the company's strategy) is a key prerequisite for the successful implementation of strategic plans.

That's why companies typically list visionary leadership as a key competency for managers. But this attitude is based on the unfounded assumption that managers outside the C-suite always agree with the company's strategy. What if they don't?

We studied visionary leadership and strategic alignment in two Western European organizations (one in the energy sector, the other in transportation). Both companies were undergoing strategic transformations. We surveyed 136 managers and their subordinates to assess the level of visionary leadership in the company (as perceived by employees) and strategic alignment within teams (how consistently team members assessed the importance of different strategic objectives) and between middle and senior managers (how consistently managers and CEOs assessed the importance of different strategic objectives).

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The results of the study showed that the visionary approach is a double-edged sword. When middle managers shared the strategic vision of the top management, the situation unfolded in accordance with the accepted notions of visionary leadership: the more these managers acted as visionary leaders (setting out their vision of the future and explaining what they wanted their teams to achieve in the next five years), the more unified the understanding of the strategy was in the teams and the more interested employees were in its implementation.

However, when managers did not share management’s vision of strategy, the shortcomings of visionary thinking became apparent. The more visionary managers were, the less aligned and engaged their teams were. Employees of visionary managers who disagreed with management reported that their managers created confusion about how to implement strategy. As a result, employees lost interest in it. As one employee explained, “We talk a lot about strategy with our manager. But I can’t figure out what it is. I prefer to do my day-to-day work and not think about it.”

Many companies invest heavily in leadership development, and almost invariably these programs highlight visionary leadership as the most important leadership competency. They invest considerably less in ensuring strategic alignment among managers. Managers are often tasked with building support for the strategy within the organization, and their own alignment with it is taken for granted by virtue of their position. However, for a variety of reasons, managers may not share the company's strategy (for example, they may be too focused on their own department's interests to see the bigger picture). Managers' understanding and support for the company's strategy cannot be taken for granted.

Our experience suggests that you need to get middle management buy-in before you implement a strategy. This should not be a one-time conversation, but a dialogue. People will only support strategic change if they are convinced of its value. This will allow the company to reap the benefits of visionary management without the drawbacks.

About the authors: Nufer Yasin Ates is an associate professor in the Department of Business Administration at Bilkent University; Murat Tarakci is a professor at the Rotterdam School of Management; Janine Pork is an associate professor at the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University; Daan van Knippenberg is the research director of the Institute for Strategic Leadership at Drexel University; Patrick Groenen is a professor of statistics and director of the Institute of Econometrics at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Original article

Why Visionary Leaders Are Dangerous