The 1 Challenge Facing All Idealistic Thinkers

Every successful company has visionaries — people focused on long-term goals and the big-picture path to future success.

There are plusses and minuses to visionary thinking. New ideas and innovation are what drive a business forward. However, visionaries tend to be poor operators because the details don’t interest them. For example, Steve Jobs was an incredible visionary, but Apple still needed Tim Cook to help execute his vision.

Visionaries tend to see certain patterns and trends evolve before the masses.

This might be the necessity of a strategic shift, or maybe the impending struggles of a once top-performing employee. This can lead to the kinds of bold decisions that put a company on top. But such decisions can also alienate employees and colleagues who don’t share the visionary’s vantage point.

Most visionaries I’ve met spend a lot of time thinking about far-reaching impacts and opportunities. If you relate it to chess, they are thinking about the game multiple steps ahead, while those who focus on day-to-day operations are centered on the next move.

You want visionary thinkers leading your company or project. But navigating the potential pitfalls of visionary thinking is a challenge in itself.

If you are a visionary, remember that your decisions can be disruptive to your organization.

This is especially true of controversial decisions.

Take, for example, the decision to let someone in your company go whom others haven’t yet identified as a potential problem. In that instance, you might have recognized something in that employee — a certain lack of motivation, or a skill set diverging from the needs of the company — that led you to believe it would be better to part ways now. But what if others on your team can only see the person’s high sales numbers or the success of her most recent project? Your decision to let that person go could come as a shock and create distrust.

The same scenario applies to more strategic decisions.

For example, years ago, when Acceleration Partners (AP) was much smaller than it is now, I studied the market and saw that it would be prudent for us to expand our operations internationally.

Many advisors, however, didn’t share that belief. They asked why we would expand internationally when our company was still small, and the U.S. market was so large. While they pushed back, I held firm. I really felt that I could see what was coming around the corner in a way that others could not.

Visionaries must identify the why behind their decisions.

Since visionaries think years ahead, those who focus more on the day-to-day often push back simply because the new ideas are such a departure from what they see in front of them. This is actually a healthy check and balance.

To gain buy-in, you need to explain your reasoning thoroughly and tactfully — beforeyou act.

Show your team the data informing your decision. Present the trends you see in the market that led you to your conclusion. Once you do that, you can engage in a more purposeful conversation about making a shift in strategy.

If you have a good team, chances are high that logic will prevail. At AP, we didultimately decide to expand internationally — and we were able to have an international offering available at exactly the right time to benefit from the move.

Timing is everything.

Visionaries can be very driven to move forward toward the bright future they see ahead. However, it’s critical that those who tend to think long-term also recognize that there are times when it’s best to step back and wait until their team is a little more prepared to accept a move.

The truth is, if you were to act right away on all the things you saw as important for your company — whether that be a critical market trend or something troubling about one of your employees — it would be disruptive. Your team might even see you as irrational or impulsive.

It’s really a delicate balancing act. Sometimes — despite the visionary’s sense of urgency — it’s best to wait until others also spot at least some of the early warning or opportunity signs. In such cases, a soft sell can prove more effective than a direct order.

Still, you can’t wait too long — and that’s the challenge.

Some of the biggest mistakes I’ve made involved waiting too long make personnel changes. I saw that someone was having trouble keeping pace, and I saw what the organization needed, but I didn’t want to rock the boat. Waiting was the wrong choice.

At the end of the day, what’s important for visionary leaders to remember is that it’s necessary to exercise logic, empathy and patience in your decision-making at all times.

Visionary thinking is a gift and a curse — appreciate that, and temper it accordingly.

This post was originally featured in Inc.

Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners and the author of the international bestselling book Performance Partnerships. Join 35,000 global leaders who follow his inspirational weekly Friday Forward, invite him to speak, or follow him on Twitter.