A Visionary often is the person who conceived the company, who had the original great idea and who continues to have ideas about how to expand the business and make it all he ever conceived it would be. Visionaries often focus on the big picture, culture, client relationships. An Integrator is the person who thrives on creating order out of chaos. She is the person who is naturally suited to setting priorities, solving conflicts, removing obstacles, getting the company from point A to point B. Its not that the Visionary couldn’t do what the Integrator does, its just that he would become bored. He would be cutting against the grain, to mix metaphors, and working far harder than necessary.

Great leadership is more about what you do than what you are born with.

Natural charisma may be valuable in some situations, but it has nothing to do with leadership. Being decisive is also useful, but doesn’t mean you effectively lead people. And innate assertiveness may just mean you push people around to get your own way.

In an interview with Adam Bryant that appeared in the New York Times, March 14, 2010, Kip Tindell, CEO of the Container Store shared one of his foundation principles, “… that one great person could easily be as productive as three good people. One great is equal to three good. If you really believe that, a lot of things happen. We try to pay 50 to 100 percent above industry average. That’s good for the employee, and that’s good for the customer, but it’s good for the company, too, because you get three times the productivity at only two times the labor cost."

The above title is our EOS Creed. Simply put, if you want a great enduring company, everyone on your leadership team must speak the same language and play by the same rules.

On a recent return trip from Alabama where I had spent a week cycling, the instrument panel of my Subaru Outback Wagon suddenly began flashing and if the “Sub”could have talked it would have shouted “Warning! Warning! Warning! Will Robinson”. The window wipers slowed down, the power steering failed and my cycling buddy Chris started hypothesizing about the probable cause …Battery? Alternator? Cyber Attack? Chris quickly located the nearest service center with his smart phone and we pulled off the freeway into Montgomery, AL. It being Saturday morning we weren’t too hopeful that we would find a place that could diagnose the problem, make the repair and send us on our way without too much delay.