Two distinct types of leaders
Gino Wickman is the creator of EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System), a set of concepts designed to help leaders to run better businesses, get better control and achieve a better work-life balance.
In his book Traction*, he introduced the idea of Visionaries and Integrators as the drivers of business success when working in partnership.
He expanded on this concept in more detail in his book Rocket Fuel (from which the quote below comes), co-authored with Mark C. Winters with the intention to give Visionaries and Integrators more information on how to work together to achieve business goals.
‘There are two distinct types of leaders... the “Visionary” and the “Integrator.” One sees the future, and the other makes it happen. These two roles could not be more different from each other. That is why it is magic when they work well together.’ - Gino Wickman.
In this article, I'd like to introduce you to Gino’s model and give you my own personal impressions of it and how it can unlock your potential as a leader.
A coming together of ideas
A series of overlapping events led to Gino’s development of the Visionary and Integrator roles, after he took over his family business and found it in desperate need of a turnaround.
Gino’s business mentor Sam Cupp explained the type of person he calls a Visionary, while business skills author Michael E. Gerber used the term Integrator in a recorded workshop to describe how the head of an organisation executes all of its major functions. These terms lodged themselves firmly in Gino’s brain, where they began to form a picture of management styles.
Having worked with his father at the family business for six months or so:
Gino realised that his father was the textbook definition of a Visionary, while he himself was in Integrator. He understood that by utilising their natural capabilities effectively, they could better work together to save the company instead of working at cross-purposes and getting nowhere.
The Visionary Leader
The Visionary tends to be the company’s founding entrepreneur. They’re a person with lots of big ideas and creative ambition. Their strengths include:
Creating the company vision
Generating lots of new ideas
Providing highly creative solutions to complex problems
Maintaining external business relationships
Being a source of enthusiasm and inspiring others with their leadership and talents
Knowing exactly what they want
When does a Visionary need help?
While they have many awesome traits, Visionaries can often battle with:
Consistency
A reluctance to let go and delegate or trust team members
Getting bored quickly and easily
Not following through on ideas
Having little patience for the details
Being “all gas and no brake”
Visionaries know where they want to be in life, and often what they need to do to achieve it. However, they can find it hard to achieve their version of success alone.
The Integrator Leader
In Gino’s model of the ideal working relationship, a Visionary needs the support of an Integrator to be truly successful. While the Visionary creates the company’s Vision, the Integrator is the one who executes it, ensuring that it is well thought out, achievable and successful.
Integrators are known to be fast learners with a wide skill set, allowing them to efficiently support Visionaries from the very beginning of the relationship.
Their superpowers include:
Planning, organisation and project management
Day-to-day running of the business
Leadership, management, and self-management
Following through and executing plans
Consistency and accountability
Resilience and adaptability
How Integrators support Visionaries
Visionaries and Integrators may seem like chalk and cheese, but they’re actually more like wine and cheese; completely different yet complementary. Together, there’s no better dream team.
Gino tells us that Integrators are “the glue that holds the people, processes, systems, priorities, and strategy of the company together.” He cites the following responsibilities and natural tendencies as being typical of Integrators:
Running the Day-to-Day
Integrators are great at taking care of the everyday running of the business, allowing the Visionary to focus on their own strengths. They hold people accountable and remove obstacles to ensure the efficient execution of tasks.
The Steady Force
Integrators are “masters of follow-through.” They offer organisational clarity and accountability, keeping the end goal in focus and “getting all of the arrows pointing in the same direction” to reduce friction and increase efficiency.
The Voice of Reason
Integrators are skilled at eliminating hurdles, stumbling blocks and barriers to ensure that goals are met. They filter the creative genius of the Visionary, helping them to focus on their best ideas and be realistic about what they can achieve.
Which leader are you?
Do you love coming up with ideas but seeing them through to completion just isn’t your genius, no matter how beneficial they may be to your business?
Do you rely on your team to put your plans into action, or are you perhaps missing this crucial piece of the management puzzle altogether?
Take the free Rocket Fuel quiz to find out where your natural talents lie so you build the right team around you.
About me
This IS me. I'd like bonus points for creating my own gif.
I'm a Certified Coach and Online Business Manager (aka an Integrator).
My clients benefit from my blend of coaching and operational skills.
Over 100 clients have worked with me to transform their actions and mindset for greater productivity, profitability and impact.
If that sounds good to you, I'd love to help you too.
Ready to explore coaching?
If you’re curious about what coaching could help you achieve, why not book a discovery chat with me to see if it’s right for you? No pressure, commitment or obligation. Just a conversation about where you are versus where you want to be and how we can bridge that gap.
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