The ideal leadership blend for Stage 7 is Visionary, Coaching, and Democratic.
Stage 7 leaders ignite the spirit of innovation, grow future leaders, and listen to their people.
Primary Leadership Style: Visionary
Visionary leaders guide the team and the company with a compelling picture of the future, framing the collective task in terms of a grander mission. They encourage employees to innovate and work towards shared goals that build team commitment. Without strong direction provided by a Visionary leader, the large number of employees in a Stage 7 business will eventually grow overly cautious, causing stagnation and ultimately resulting in retreat.
The Visionary style provides the 200+ people working for the company a clear idea for where the business is headed. Without a unifying vision, departments, teams, and staff will start to go their own way.
Secondary Leadership Style: Coaching
Coaching leaders communicate a belief in people's potential and an expectation that they do their best; they provide feedback and instruction regularly and are willing to put up with short-term failure if it furthers long-term learning.
The Coaching style is critical in Stage 7 because it is needed to grow and develop a Leadership Team that can manage the day-to-day operations of the business.
Tertiary Leadership Style: Democratic
The tertiary leadership style in a Stage 7 company is Democratic.
Democratic leaders focus on promoting harmony in the organization while building a relationship of trust and respect with employees. Listening is a key strength of a Democratic leader, who, in Stage 7, is always seeking out innovative ideas from team members.
A Stage 7 organization should now have fully developed and integrated Leadership and Management Teams. The Democratic leader builds buy-in and forges consensus through collaboration with these teams.
The most common misalignment in Stage 7 is an under-emphasis on the Visionary style. The organization has reached new heights in the number of employees, and now more than at any time since Stage 1 does the organization desire a clear, compelling vision of the future. With the leader turning over day-to-day operations to the Leadership Team, it is time to make the Visionary style primary. Failure to provide sufficient emphasis on vision can cause the organization to lose its way, plateau, and eventually decline.
Leaders who lack a natural strength in this style may find it necessary to rely on other leaders—those who are already part of the organization or someone from the outside—to meet this primary leadership need of a Stage 7 organization.
The second common misalignment is an under-emphasis of the Democratic style. While it is only tertiary in Stage 7, the Democratic style is important to maintain buy-in from the Leadership Team, which is now the driving force of the organization.
Leadership Style Blend Misalignment
The founder and CEO of an innovative technology company has retired. The new CEO, who is promoted from within the company, is known to be a hard worker—someone who is always out in front, demonstrating the drive and productivity expected of all employees. Mindful of the shoes she is trying to fill, the new CEO sets a fast pace for the company, with ambitious goals and seemingly impossible deadlines. Initially, her Leadership Team manages to keep up with her, but over time there is a noticeable lack of energy or excitement. Managers report that morale is not very high within their departments, and turnover begins to increase.
Several months into her leadership, the company suffers a blow when it fails to earn the Innovation Award, an industry prize they had secured five years in a row. The award goes to their main competitor instead. The CEO is shocked by the outcome. She’s been pushing her team hard and can’t imagine asking for more; they’re struggling to keep up as it is. The long hours are starting to wear on her as well, something that never used to bother her under the former CEO.
The Pacesetting leadership style is no longer the most effective style for a Stage 7 company. Instead, the CEO needs to primarily lead with the Visionary style. In this case, the CEO is getting the other leaders in the company to push and work hard, but the problem is that nobody knows where they’re heading. Without a unifying vision, their sprints of effort are effective at meeting deadlines but miss the mark when it comes to creating anything disruptive or out of the ordinary—anything truly innovative. Without vision, employees are following orders but are not empowered to make decisions for themselves. By shifting her focus to where the company is headed and the big picture of what they are trying to accomplish, the CEO can generate momentum and excitement that will once again spark innovation.
The concepts from this article were taken from The Visionary Stage: Organizational ReWilding Rules for Business Growth. Available through The ReWild Group and Amazon, the book explores in-depth this and other concepts while providing illustrations to help business leaders incorporate the ideas into their organizations. Get your copy today to learn the rules for growth for companies with 161-350 employees.