The Future is Yet to be Told: The Promise of Combining Visionary Leadership with Storytelling

Abstract

Although there is a voluminous literature on the broader construct of transformational leadership, there are few and decidedly mixed findings on the effects of the more circumscribed dimension visionary leadership. Prior research indicates that it may not only matter whether or not leaders engage in visionary communications, but also how they do it. For example, are there rhetorical tools that enhance the effectiveness of visionary leadership? In a three-wave, two- source field study of 148 teams, we examined the idea that storytelling augments the effects of visionary leadership on team efficacy and, in turn, team performance. Results confirmed that, as hypothesized, visionary leadership was more strongly positively related to both team efficacy and team performance when storytelling was high, rather than low. Moreover, team efficacy mediated the interactive effects of visionary leadership and storytelling on team performance. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.