The Visionary and Integrator Combo, a Cat and Mouse Dynamic Duo 

The Visionary and Integrator in your company don’t have to be soul mates, in fact, they’re more like a cat and mouse partnership. Now, that sounds a little lethal and of course we don’t mean that, but we do mean that they naturally antagonize each other a little bit. They prod the other to get them to do more of what they naturally do and to be better. 

If the Visionary and Integrator are too similar, then you’re losing a lot of that agitation. They’re not forced to think about things in new ways and suddenly their partnership becomes stagnant and not effective. It’s the true opposites attract situation, and this is why it works – at least in business. 

Visionary 

We don’t want to be redundant here, but if you already have a Visionary in your company, try to look in from the outside and see how they stack up. The Visionary is typically a Founder, CEO, Chairman, or a President – but they don’t have to have those titles. The word Visionary isn’t tied to title, it’s tied to personality and innate strengths. 

A Visionary is full of ideas. They’re literally bursting with new things they want to do. They get the big picture in a way most people don’t. They can be unrealistic in their ideas and expectations because the world doesn’t quite work the way they want it to. But they love to get things done and keep moving forward.  

Visionaries also tend to get bored quickly or frustrated and they’d much rather delegate than do the small, essential tasks themselves. They’re ahead of the game but need a little reigning in to really be effective. This is why they need an Integrator as their partner. 

Integrator 

Now it’s time to look at the Integrator from a fresh perspective. If you work with one daily, they might seem like the task masters, the person who makes all the rules – and if you’re a Visionary, sometimes it feels like they dampen your fire. That’s all okay, because that’s their job.  

The Integrator has a really hard task, and an accomplished one who is good at their role is priceless. Often, they have the title of President, COO, General Manager, or Chief of Staff. But once again, the title isn’t as important as their abilities and that they’re using them. 

An Integrator hears all of the ideas of the Visionary. Some of those ideas are true gold and need to be fleshed out, brought back to what’s possible, and then implemented. Some of the ideas are simply not practical, off base, and not worth the effort. The Integrator is the tiebreaker and the deciding vote. This person sees the gold among the rocks and then organizes the team so that they can begin mining and polishing the best ideas. 

Cat and Mouse 

Think of the classic cat and mouse cartoon – Tom and Jerry. This duo wasn’t really out to harm each other, in fact, they had an incredible symbiotic relationship.  

In the V/I world, the Visionary is the mouse/Jerry. That mouse runs around coming up with all sorts of ideas and interesting plots or tricks to play on the cat/Tom. The cat tries to contain the mouse and basically bring it back to base.  

They’re two great thinkers and entrepreneurs who have a more interesting life because they have each other. In the business world, this leads to a more successful company with more engaged employees.  

So, what are you? More Visionary or more Integrator? If you want to see what percent Visionary or Integrator you are, take this crystallizer quiz by Rocket Fuel! It can make for great segue questions for your same page meetings and other talking points as you demonstrate your V/I relationship to the company.

Build Your V/I Combo

We value data at Titus. Using Predictive Index to map out behavioral drives for Visionaries and Integrators, we’ve accumulated scores of data from executive searches which have unveiled common characteristics for both personas that make them tick. We’ve leveraged this data as a recipe to build out the V/I combo (through our executive search) and then use PI’s relationship guide to predict areas of strengths and cautions within their particular dynamic. If you would like access to your customized V/I relationship guide or a readback session for your V/I combo, let us know. 

At Titus, we have a rock solid V/I combo. Are we biased? Sure. But, if you’re curious, listen to our story. The respect and chemistry is real. It’s important! There has to be so much trust there…according to EOS®, if there’s an impasse between the two of them, the Integrator makes the final call. 

If you’re interested in learning more about the Visionary/Integrator relationship or looking to hire one of these key members of the team, please connect with us and we’d love to help.