Working With A Visionary Founder
A firsthand view on the reality distortion field
Have you ever wondered why sometimes a business has both a founder and a Chief Executive Officer?
It’s not always possible for it to be the same person, and that’s all about someone’s style.
We’re told over and over that Leaders > Managers, but the fact is some people are simply better suited to one or the other, and it’s hard to do both.
Similarly, there are workers who need more direction, guidance, and well, management than others, and that’s ok.
If you’re lucky enough to work for a true leader — a born visionary — like I am, there are many learning opportunities for you, but you’re in for a bumpy ride.
Let me share my firsthand experiences of the reality distortion field that radiates from visionary founders/owners/leaders.
The Opportunities:
Look at any job advertisement and you’re likely to see the phrase:
“Think outside the box”
What does this mean? What is the box? Who actually thinks outside of it?
Visionary leaders, that’s who.
A true leader is often unpredictable and will surprise you with a game-changer. Not always one that resonates with your opinion, and even more often not with your data.
Think Jobs or Musk. They can simply see something we can’t but through their passion, charisma, and gravitas they can move our perspective towards their way of thinking. They are renowned for being hard to work with, for ignoring ‘proof’ from their leadership teams and pushing for their beliefs.
Their way or the highway. Which corporate executive would like to settle for product launch marketing solely through memes ?
This is a humbling thing to behold that I hope everyone will get to experience one day.
Often ahead of their time, a visionary can be misunderstood and only in retrospect proven to be right. These people like to take risks, and that can be very off-putting to the rank and file.
There are multiple tools like the Meyers-Briggs personality test and Johari’s Window that you can use to figure out what type of person you are, and whether you’re going to get on with the visionary you work for.
As an INTP I can promise you that I have spent more time in meditation and stoic reflections than ever before. Receiving drastic decisions that are not logical, which to me means not backed up by data, yet brought with passion and emotion by a leader that considers the company his child and has a business track record that dwarfs mine means being humble, accepting to learn what I don’t understand and changing my view on the world on a constant basis.
The Threats:
Some of us are simply risk-averse and driven by data.
We typically call these people “number guys”.
That’s not at all to say number guys don’t have the emotional, irrational elements of emotional guys, simply they consider different things.
Imagine the difficulty of running a team of Data Analysts, who love to get deep in the data. The Team Leader (that would be you) needs to present their findings to the board, using words, beliefs and emotions.
Now extrapolate this into a scenario whereby an employee believes the data shows the visionary leaders emotionally-charged idea to be a risk and likely to underperform.
How do you navigate that?
Sadly, there’s not really a right or wrong answer to that approach; we need to discern that in employment, there is little equality.
However, there can be egality: the understanding that different people need different treatment.
If you can find an egalitarian visionary to work for, stick with them, you’re in for a real treat. Although some days will require more meditation than others to be honest.
