Why Should the Boss Listen to You?: The Seven Disciplines of the Trusted Strategic Advisor

5.6. What Does a Verbal Visionary Do?

First of all, a verbal visionary is a counselor. An effective counselor is a pragmatist, a truth seeker and candid truth teller, a storyteller, and an inspiration and motivator to others. As a pragmatist, the verbal visionary defines reality in terms of what will actually happen. In some ways you could say that a pragmatist is the opposite of a dreamer. Most pragmatists have the sense of reality necessary to help bring dreams to life. A pragmatist is someone who gets the getable, knows the knowable, does the doable, and achieves the achievable.

A counselor is a truth coach, someone who avoids the trap of believing in narrow truths that ultimately satisfy no one. If truth seems difficult to find, the counselor ...