Visionary leaders are masters of change. They have the ability to visualize what can be achieved, can communicate the benefits of change along with the ability to lead others.

As a visionary leader your focus needs to be on both Accountability and Innovation. These are two words that don’t always seem to go together. Accountability, on one hand, conjures up thoughts of responsibility, deadlines and the pressure to succeed. Innovation, on the other hand, brings thoughts of experimentation, challenging the status quo, excitement and lack of boundaries. The power is when you combine Accountability and Innovation to achieve even greater results.

Accountability is about keeping promises, overall focus on important business challenges and being held responsible for the results. Innovation involves giving talented people the necessary training, tools and culture required to challenge the status quo. A culture that fosters innovation and embraces accountability provides the foundation for an organization that will survive generations. The challenge is how to combine the best of accountability with the best of innovation to create new systems and processes that will result in even greater achievements. Communicate a clear vision of success, define multiple measures for accountability including the entire team, and develop a data dashboard to drive improvement. What happens if you don’t have innovation in an organization and everyone gets used to the status quo – read about the Five Monkeys experiment below.

Five Monkeys Experiment

Researchers placed five monkeys in a room with a ladder and some bananas at the top of it. It didn’t take long before one of the monkeys saw the bananas and decided to climb the ladder.
As soon as the monkey reached the banana, all five monkeys were showered with cold water.
This frustrated the monkeys, but shortly after the showering ended a second monkey braved climbing the ladder once again.
Again, all five monkeys were showered with cold water. The monkeys were starting to see a pattern. So, the researchers decided to change the scenario. This time they would take out the water and replace one of the monkeys with a new one.
The new monkey comes into the room and notices the banana sitting safely on the ladder. He sees an easy snack and approaches the ladder.
As soon as he starts to climb the other four monkeys attack him. The new monkey doesn’t understand what he did wrong but no longer approaches the ladder.
The researchers continue the new pattern by replacing another monkey. This new monkey sees the banana and does the same thing as the last monkey to enter the room. Upon climbing the ladder, the original three monkeys attack once again, as well as the first new monkey.
A third, fourth, and eventually fifth monkey is replaced. By now all the new monkeys are attacking each new monkey that tries to get the banana. They’ve never been sprayed for attempting to get the banana but choose to attack each monkey that tries anyways.
Still, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs, but no one really knows why. All the original monkeys who experienced being sprayed with water have been replaced. What is left is five monkeys who know that they can’t touch the banana but don’t really know why… because that’s the way it’s been done around here.