Two workers in the Operations Department of a company were working one Friday evening to push out a late delivery. One saw a problem about to happen and said to the other, “Look at that! We can’t ship this out. This order is not correct.”

“You’re right,” said the other, “But neither one of us can fix it. Nobody can fix it until Monday. The boss told us to get this shipment out tonight, and we’ll get yelled at if we don’t. Remember what he did the last time something like this happened?”

So out the order went, and in came an angry customer complaint two days later when the order was delivered. And then out went a chunk of the profits from the order because it cost the company three times as much to fix the error than it would have to get it right the first time.

If you haven’t read my previous blogs about Visionaries and Integrators, please take a moment to read them first to get essential context for this article:

• Visionaries and Integrators - Part 1: Why Both are Essential
• Visionaries and Integrators - Part 2: What is a Visionary?

When you have created your Accountability Chart, you will clearly see the need for an Integrator. This is the major function that all major functions report to, and every organization must have one. In some companies, this person is known as the President, COO, General Manager, or Chief of Staff – the title doesn’t matter, but the role is essential.

Recently, Gino Wickman and I were honored to be guests of Dan Sullivan on his very popular podcast, Inside Strategic Coach. For those of you who don't know Dan yet, he's helped thousands of entrepreneurs improve their businesses and their lives through his Strategic Coach program. Gino has been enrolled in Strategic Coach for nearly twenty years, and credits Dan and his program with helping clarify his vision, and conceive of and then work to build EOS Worldwide with our friend and partner, Don Tinney.

One of the most powerful EOS^® tools is the Accountability Chart. It’s powerful because it crystallizes the right structure and illustrates all available seats in your organization. In addition, it clarifies who reports to who and who is accountable for what.

All that said, it also illuminates the Visionary and Integrator roles sitting atop the major functions of your business. An organization has a Visionary about 50 percent of the time, and it must have an Integrator 100 percent of the time.

In an entrepreneurial company, the roles of Visionary and Integrator are an essential part of the organization, no matter how big or how small. The Visionary and the Integrator couldn’t be more different in terms of how they think and problem-solve. However, when their individual Unique Ability^® is correctly matched together and they are working toward the same business goals, the results can be exciting.

The Visionary entrepreneur’s passion, drive, and creativity are the key elements that help launch a business and fuel a company’s growth. But when a company is growing, the Visionary entrepreneur can start to feel swamped with the overwhelming workload, and their momentum begins to stall and sputter. Every great Visionary hits this threshold.