The 4 Main Differences Between the Visionaries and the Drivers in Your Company

A core tenant of our Enterprise Velocity model is that different audiences in your organization require different sets of practices. We often compare the audiences in an organization to different sections in an orchestra. The percussionists cannot play from the same sheet of music as the woodwinds. Likewise, your two main internal audiences – visionaries and drivers – have different motivations, purposes, tasks and goals.

Who are visionaries and drivers?

The visionaries in your company are the team from the future. In the growth of your company from A to Z, your visionaries are focused on Z. Visionaries are typically your founders, top executives and top innovators. It might be a large group or it might be a single person with a dream for the future. Visionary practices and systems are designed around vision, modeling, alignment, leadership and competitive advantage.

Drivers are responsible for making the dream happen. Because visionaries live in the future, they are often impatient and intolerant when it comes to the regular orchestration of day-to-day operations. Drivers move the company forward one step at a time. Driver practices are focused on systematic and repeatable processes for defining, carrying out and measuring the main missions of the company.

The Main 4 Differences Between Visionaries and Drivers

We break the most important differences between visionaries and drivers into four areas: core purpose, motivation, defining beliefs and processes.

Core Purposes

The first main difference between visionaries and drivers involves core purpose. Visionaries imagine; drivers actualize. The core purpose of a visionary is to dream up the future of the company. They are focused on possibilities, not limitations. Unfortunately, a future focus can make visionaries impatient with day-to-day realities. Drivers on the other hand are necessarily focused on day-to-day execution and not 10-year vision. While it is their job to focus on removing the next choke point, sometimes drivers miss the forest for the trees. Rare leaders are capable of both vision and execution, but even those who are so inclined often favor one over the other.

Motivation

Visionaries and drivers are motivated differently. Visionaries are motivated by the goal line; drivers are motivated by a combination of individual and universal motivators. Some of this comes from the fact that visionaries are usually the founders and primary shareholders in an organization. To be blunt, founders care about exit valuations as part of the goal line and drivers do not. The goal line is more than just monetary for most visionaries. They see a future that needs created, new products, new services, new value and new possibilities. Visionaries are motivated to see that future realized. Drivers often join a company for the vision, but they stay because it meets particular individual and universal motivations like skill growth, monetary success, friendship and altruism.

Defining beliefs

The defining belief for visionaries is something we call “The Impossible Dream.” It’s a dream so big that they only way they can realize it is to create their own company, their own products and their own services. Drivers’ defining beliefs come from their set of core values. If a driver can live authentically and the core values of an organization meet their own core values, they will knock down walls to get the mission accomplished.

Processes

Finally, visionaries and drivers have different core processes. At the broadest level, visionaries point the compasses toward a 10-year vision while drivers are responsible for designing, implementing, managing and measuring business plans across your Revenue Blueprint.

Are You Ready to Unlock Growth in Your Company?

The key is to learn to bridge these differences and that is a major part of our Enterprise Velocity program. Schedule a free consultation to determine if these business growth ideas could work for you.