Leadership Characteristics and Competencies

Leadership Characteristics and Competencies

“Vision without action is merely a dream.

Action without vision just passes the time.

Vision with action can change the world.”

-Joel Barker

This quotation by Joel Barker, notable futurist, filmmaker, author and lecturer, represents an important organizational competency: the visionary leadership, which is aimed at communicating the shared vision to the extent that it is 'shared' by everyone within the organization, and then working towards achieving it. It encompasses all the psychological factors required for achievement: motivation, recognition and rewards, etc. A visionary leader is one which looks forward to the future, the expected results/performance/outcomes, and works through collaborative techniques to motivate and engage people into working in alignment with the organizational vision and mission (Solan, 2008). He or she has some exclusive skills which is why the 'leader' role has been assigned; he/she makes use of motivation to enhance employees' productivity. In case an organizational change is being implemented, he/she steps forth, embraces the change, and shows employees what's in it for them, in order to motivate them to work according to it. In essence, visionary leadership seeks to empower the organization by making it more competitive as it would be breaking the barriers of a rigid routine comprising of mundane and monotonous work by providing an adequate amount of pertinent information, giving support, and highlighting opportunities for advancement. Sometimes also called as spiritual leaders, visionary leaders need to commit to the very basic spiritual values. A visionary leader has to be good with not just words, but actions as well, as he is in a guiding position which requires the person on which the leadership responsibility has been bestowed to be promising, determined, and delivering.

There are a number of reasons why I believe that the quotation relates to this specific organizational characteristic. First and foremost, Barker, or 'Doctor' Barker as he would be referred to, earned a Doctorate (honors) in 1999 from Minnesota's St. Mary's University, in Visionary Leadership (Dilts, 1996). As it has already been established that innovation is a core/essential characteristic of a visionary leader, it wouldn't be wrong to call Dr.Barker a visionary/innovative leader, as he was the first person to apply the concept of a paradigm shift to the corporate world. He merged the paradigm shift concept with that of visionary leadership, thus creating the very recent term 'leadershift'- which refers to a transformation in the prevailing or existing notion of leadership. Dr.Barker has also been renowned for his futuristic visions and out-of-the-ordinary training programs. Another reason that leads me to relate this quotation to the visionary leadership contingency is that it speaks of action in the absence of a vision. Even in such a scenario, this would still relate to a form of leadership, as taking actions and actualizing plans and goals is one of the very basic leadership characteristics, although they might not be 'visionary' in nature. This quotation speaks of the necessity of combining actions and visions, in order to see some results. It also speaks of the worth ...