Visionary, Processor and Operator Leadership Styles
Effective leadership style is important in the modern global competitive environment. For the organization to achieve the desired goals, leaders must adopt the best style and influence followers. Leaders should also coordinate employees, take obligation, set targets, and be adaptable (Herbers, 2016). Today, business owners should not only depend on their employees but they should also focus on their own actions. Note that it is important to support the employees by providing them with the right tools, creating a positive culture, offering compensation, addressing their needs and opportunities, among other practices (Herbers, 2016). However, it is also important for the owners to become leaders by choosing the best management style which not only fits other key roles but which also fits their personality. For example, business owners must become real visionaries. This means that apart from addressing the employees' needs, they should try new things that will benefit the entire organization. They should focus on growing the firms bigger and apply others' ideas (Herbers, 2016). Business owners should also be action-oriented. This means that they should be in the forefront to solve problems and after solving one problem, they should identify other problems and offer solutions. They should offer constant energy to make sure that business operations are running smoothly. Lastly, business owners should be processor leader. This means that they should recognize potential problems and provide a successful formula to maximize growth. It is important to understand that in the competitive environment, these leadership styles are not learned but they are natural (Herbers, 2016). Thus, it is the role of the business owner to recognize the leadership style and take advantage of natural talent. It is advisable that business owners should not only focus on being the source of primary revenue but they should focus on adding value to the firm by identifying the role to play to move the firm to the next level.
Definition
A visionary leader is someone with imaginations, sees a big picture, sees a potential for change, have a wonderful vision, and shows a heartfelt commitment to achieve the vision. It is important to understand that visionary leaders address long-term issues and they must use their vision and courage to embrace change and stay on track (McKeown, 2017). Example of a visionary leader is an inventor. For instance, an investor is someone who crafts a vision, brings innovation, solves problems, and develops the technology. Thus, an investor is a visionary leader who thinks big and develops ideas. A processor leader is someone who has an innate desire to design and implement new skills in business situations. In other words, a processor focuses on the company's systems and processes and brings priorities to ensure that the organization is smoothly running. Processor leaders are not customer-focused by they focus on improving the process, and outsourcing (McKeown, 2017). Example of a processor leader is the project manager. Note that in the organization, the project manager focuses on the project and in specific, the systems and processes. To ensure that the project achieves a successful completion, the project manager ensures efficiency and consistency, employs measurable and objective standards to make decisions, works with project teams to run scenarios, and thinks logically to bring accuracy. An operator leader is someone who gets the job done. He is task-focused and he eliminates unnecessary activities and complicated systems to ensure that things are done (McKeown, 2017). Example of an operator leader is a brand manager. Note that the role of a brand manager is to innovate brands, conduct sales analysis, manage the budget, work in product development, and develop business opportunities among other roles.
Similarities and differences of Visionary, Processor and Operator Leadership Styles
The three styles of leadership have similarities. All work together to ensure that the organization achieves its goals. For example, the visionary leader starts new projects and the operator completes the projects. Note that the visionary establishes long-term strategies and initializes the vision (Anderson, 2013). After creating the organization vision, the processor comes in and thinks logically about the rhythms to the work. In other words, the processor concentrates on what should be done or which systems and processes should be put in place to achieve the desired change. The operator also works with visionary and processor leaders to ensure that the organization's operations are going smoothly (Anderson, 2013). In other words, since the visionary leader has established the vision, and the processor has designed and implemented effective systems and processes, the operator leader coordinates tasks to get things done. In general, leaders will not achieve their goals without relying on the other.
However, even though the three styles of leadership rely on the other, they differ in that they have different motivations. In other words, they have different ultimate goals and that is why they work differently. For example, the motive of a visionary leader is to start new things. The visionary leader does not focus on the existing challenges but holds a positive outlook and sees a big picture, and have hope that in the future, the organization will be in a better place (Anderson, 2013). On the other hand, operator leaders do not recognize the potential but they fix things. His motive is to take actions and get things done. Lastly, the motive of the processor leader is to systematize and supervise. He is very detailed and employs the analytical approach to ensure quality control.
Example of leaders
Charles Coffin is a great example of a processor leader. He exercised efficiency and supported the General Electric organization by setting up effective systems. He focused on systematic management development and made GE the top corporation. An example of a visionary leader is Jenny Fleiss. The latter is someone who has a creative energy and comes up with ideas. For example, she founded the Rent the Runway Company and Jetblakc Company. She is an innovator and she has a big picture of the future to ensure that American women rent dresses rather than buying (Anderson, 2013). An example of an operator leader is Sam Walton. The latter is the foundation of Walmart and he was task-focused and ensured that the employees worked hard to achieve the desired objectives.
Situations in which each of these styles may be useful
A processor leadership style can be used in the manufacturing process. At this situation, the processor leader focus on the implementation strategy. This means that the leader must come up with detailed design, procedures, equipment, packing, storing, and other elements of production to be used in mass manufacturing. In general, the leader must identify the technologies and systems to achieve the organization objectives. Visionary leadership can be applied to the healthcare system. Note that in order to improve the healthcare system, there must be a clear vision (Anderson, 2013). In this situation, the visionary leader should create a vision, and communicate the vision. The operator leadership style can be applied to restaurants. An operator leader should operate the business and ensure that employees show a high capability to meet the organization goals.
References
McKeown Les. (2017). What is Your Leadership Style? Retrieved from: https://medium.com/do-book-company/whats-your-leadership-style-fdc8bad45fe0
Anderson Erika. (2013). Leader, Manager, Operator, Which Are You? Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2013/02/17/leader-manager-operator-which-are-you/#7fe3d8626095
Herbers Angie. (2016). The 4 Styles of Advisor Leadership. ALM Media Properties. . Retrieved from: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2016/03/01/the-4-styles-of-advisor-leadership/?slreturn=20190715025439
