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CHAPTER 13: CREATING VISION AND STRATEGIC DIRECTION 417
Deacon and his colleagues spent hours talking with Coleman, listening to him weave
his ideas about the kind of company Hi-Tech could become. He assured the team that
the transformation was his highest priority, and inspired them with stories about the
significant impact they were going to have on the company as well as the entire air-
craft industry. Together, the group crafted a vision statement that was distributed to all
employees and posted all over the building. At lunchtime, the company cafeteria was
abuzz with talk about the new vision. And when the young, nattily dressed president
himself appeared in the cafeteria, as he did once every few weeks, it was almost as if a
rock star had walked in.
At the team’s first meeting with Coleman, Deacon presented several different ideas
and concepts they had come up with, explaining the advantages of each for ripping Hi-
Tech out of the past and slamming it jubilantly into the twenty-first century. Nothing,
however, seemed to live up to Coleman’s ambitions for the project—he thought all the
suggestions were either too conventional or too confusing. After three hours the team left
Coleman’s office and went back to the drawing board. Everyone was even more fired up
after Coleman’s closing remarks about the potential to remake the industry and maybe
even change the world.
Early the next day, Coleman called Deacon to his office and laid out his own broad
ideas for how the project should proceed. “Not bad,” thought Deacon, as he took the
notes and drawings back to the team. “We can take this broad concept and really put
some plans for action into place.” The team’s work over the next few months was for
the most part lively and encouraging. Whenever Coleman would attend the meetings, he
would suggest changes in many of their specific plans and goals, but miraculously, the
transformation plan began to take shape. The team sent out a final draft to colleagues and
outside consultants and the feedback was almost entirely positive.
The plan was delivered to Coleman on a Wednesday morning. When Deacon had still
not heard anything by Friday afternoon, he began to worry. He knew Coleman had been
busy with a major customer, but the president had indicated his intention to review the
plan immediately. Finally, at 6 p.m., Coleman called Deacon to his office. “I’m afraid
we just can’t run with this,” he said, tossing the team’s months of hard work on the desk.
“It’s just . . . well, just not right for this company.”
Deacon was stunned. And so was the rest of the team when he reported Coleman’s
reaction. In addition, word was beginning to get out around the company that all was
not smooth with the transformation project. The cafeteria conversations were now more
likely to be gripes that nothing was being done to help the company improve. Coleman
assured the team, however, that his commitment was still strong; they just needed to take
a different approach. Deacon asked that Coleman attend as many meetings as he could to
help keep the team on the right track. Nearly a year later, the team waited in anticipation
for Coleman’s response to the revised proposal.
Coleman called Deacon at home on Friday night. “Let’s meet on this project first
thing Monday morning,” he began. “I think we need to make a few adjustments. Looks
like we’re more or less headed in the right direction, though.” Deacon felt like crying as
he hung up the phone. All that time and work. He knew what he could expect on Monday
morning. Coleman would lay out his vision and ask the team to start over.
Sources: Based on “The Vision Failed,” Case 8.1 in Peter G. Northouse, Leadership—Theory and Practice, 2nd ed.
(Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001), pp. 150–151; and Joe Kay, “My Year at a Big High Tech Company,” Forbes
ASAP (May 29, 2000), pp. 195–198; “Digital Diary (My Year at a Big High Tech Company),” http://www.forbes.
com/asap/2000/ accessed on November 19, 2000; and “Digital Diary, Part Two: The Miracle,” Forbes ASAP
(August 21, 2000), pp. 187–190.

QUESTIONS
1. How effective would you rate Coleman as a visionary leader? Discuss.
2. Where would you place Coleman on the chart of types of leaders in Exhibit 13.8?
Where would you place Deacon?
3. If you were Deacon, what would you do?