visual representation of leadership

3 ways leaders can use visuals as a catalyst for change

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It’s a glaring paradox: Senior leaders are the ones pushing for increased agility, innovation, and other changes to improve the bottom line—yet they're also the ones standing in the way of actualizing these initiatives. Why?

To find out what’s holding leaders back—and how they can transform from inhibitors of change to catalysts of change—we talked to Pete Behrens, founder of the Agile Leadership Journey . With over 30 years of experience as a leader and coach, Behrens provided insights on how leaders can use one of the most impactful communication techniques—visuals—to effectively lead their organizations through change.

What causes ineffective change leadership?

Put simply: Many leaders don’t realize their behaviors are getting in the way of change. It’s not ill-intended—in fact, it’s not intentional at all. 

“It’s merely a gap in awareness,” said Behrens. “There’s a disconnect between how many leaders view themselves versus how others perceive them.” 

This is not a phenomenon unique to leadership. In a series of surveys , organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich found that 95% of people think they’re self-aware, but only 10-15% truly are. The difference is that when leaders who hold great influence lack self-awareness, the impact is much further reaching than it is for most people. Far enough reaching, in fact, that leaders are unintentionally holding their organizations back from achieving their goals. 

Fortunately, there are ways for leaders to become more self-aware. One of the most impactful ways to do this is through visuals. 

The power of visuals in igniting change 

If you’re not aware of your own biases, behaviors, and blindspots, you can’t change them. This is where visuals come in: As the saying goes, seeing is believing. 

“Visualization is the most powerful force of the human brain. It has the power to bring something from unconscious to conscious,” said Behrens. “And when you go back to the root cause of not improving, it's a lack of consciousness.“

Visuals are a well-known way to help humans understand and make sense of information. Research shows that visuals not only help people communicate information faster and retain it longer, they also trigger a stronger emotional response, a key driver of taking action. 

Oftentimes, though, we think of visuals only as a way to communicate information to others (e.g. A PowerPoint Deck or Information Poster), not to ourselves. But if visuals can help others understand information, they can certainly help leaders understand their own biases and behavioral patterns.

Leaders that do use visuals in this way will be better equipped to change their behavior and adopt agile leadership styles that propel organizational change forward, not impede it. 

How to use visuals as a leadership tool for change

How exactly can leaders use visuals to increase awareness and drive change in themselves and their organizations? Behrens provided a few examples: 

1. Use visuals as a way to highlight certain habits and behaviors

Leaders are inundated with advice on how to become better leaders—the kind of leaders who can successfully lead change initiatives . Visuals can help leaders reveal discrepancies in how they view their leadership style versus how it actually is, so they can act on recommended best practices. 

One way Behrens recommends leaders bring these discrepancies into awareness is by visualizing how they spend their time. How a leader spends their focused activities and time signals their values and correlates directly to organizational impact. While there is no right balance for any particular leader, knowing your biases and visualizing a new version of yourself is the first step to becoming a better leader.

Visualize: What do you do? What do you lead? What do you coach?

Leaders may think they’re spending time developing and coaching their team when in actuality most of their time is spent leading meetings. By making this information visible, leaders can change their behavior and adjust how they spend their time. In this case, a leader may realize that they need to pass off some of their meetings if they wish to spend more time coaching.

Visualize how you spend your time in conversations

Visuals are an incredibly useful way for leaders to understand their natural tendencies in conversation and improve their communication skills. 

For instance, some leaders have a tendency to dominate conversations and don’t spend enough time asking questions or getting input from team members. Other times, leaders try to be overly accommodating, asking too many questions and making the conversation feel more like an interrogation than a collaboration.

“Conversations are much like dancing,” said Behrens. “Sometimes we lead, sometimes we follow, and sometimes we mirror where it is hard to tell the difference. Effective conversations, just like a great dance, are well-balanced.”

By visualizing the flow of a conversation, leaders can see where their communication style lands and identify opportunities to improve. 

The Agile Leadership Journey uses a tool called the Catalyst Conversation to help leaders visually navigate conversations. 

“Utilizing the Catalyst Conversation tool requires practice and often represents a different way of communicating than most leaders are accustomed to,” said Behrens. “Keeping a visual representation of the conversation flow front and center helps leaders improve their communication, even in the moment,” explained Behrens.

Check out Behrens’s podcast, (Re)Learning Leadership , to receive more insights on evolving your mindset and accelerating change. 

2. Use visuals as a reminder—and inspiration—to sustain change

As much as we don’t want to admit it, humans are notoriously bad at sticking with change (ask anyone who has struggled with keeping New Year’s resolutions). Considering how important internal transformation is for leading an organization effectively, it’s clear how this natural tendency could be problematic for leaders.

Luckily, visuals not only help increase awareness, they’re also a powerful way to create action plans and stay on track after identifying areas of change. 

Visualize how you’ll reach your change goals

Once leaders have identified that a change is needed, they can create a visual action plan to determine just how they’re going to execute on that change. To ensure the change goal is actionable, Behrens recommends that leaders record:

• Why the goal is important now
• Potential obstacles that could hinder progress
• Small steps they can take to move the goal forward
• Measurements they’ll use to gauge success

“While most leaders set goals, many fail to successfully implement them,” said Behrens. “By visually breaking down the goal into these sections, leaders will formulate a well-thought-out approach that can guide their efforts to change.”

Use visuals to trigger certain behaviors

Many people already create daily reminders in their life and workspace. These could look like keeping a sticky note on your monitor with the words “Take a deep breath” written across it, posting your to-do list in a place you visit frequently, or color-coding time on your calendar for activities you’d otherwise forget. 

Similarly, simple visual cues can help leaders remember how they wish to spend their time or act in certain situations. For instance, Behrens encourages his clients to keep the visuals they create in workshops in a clearly visible place after the workshop is finished. These visuals serve as daily reminders to inspire leaders to maintain new mindsets or behaviors and continue on their internal transformation journey. 

“As soon as we start to visualize the material, it triggers a deeper level of engagement and connection that people feel to the material,” said Behrens. “Now, these visuals act as reminders of an experience that stays with them constantly.”

3. Use visuals to align leadership focus for organization-wide change

In addition to increasing awareness and inspiring behaviors for individuals, visuals also have the power to help align the focus of leaders across an organization. When a leadership team is aligned and working together on common behaviors and goals, they are in a much better position to lead an organization through change. 

“When you multiply the number of leaders working together on change, you start to get a real cultural influence,” explained Behrens. “This is where you can pull the bigger levels of organizational change.”

After all, organizations are made up of people, and all people have biases. Much like increasing awareness of personal biases is key to changing individual behaviors, creating awareness of organization-wide biases is key to changing company culture. Visuals can help shed light on these biases—and any discrepancies in perception across the organization. 

As a 2021 PwC survey reveals, many organizations experience a “perception chasm,” in which individuals below management view the culture significantly different than those in leadership positions. Visuals can help leadership see just how wide this perception gap is. 

For example, the visual above, created as part of Agile Leadership Journey’s Culture Values 360 Assessment , shows the difference between how one organization’s leadership viewed their culture (and what they desired in the culture) and how their employees viewed the same culture. By making this gap visible, leadership was better able to focus their efforts on closing the gap—and two years later, leadership and employees were much more aligned.

“By regularly visualizing this information, organizations can see how efforts to shape and improve culture have helped close the chasm, as well as areas they could focus on even more,” said Behrens. 

From increasing awareness to sparking motivation and aligning organizations, visuals are a powerful leadership tool for change initiatives. 

For more guidance on leading your organization through change, check out the e-book on agile leadership.

About Lucid

Lucid Software is a pioneer and leader in visual collaboration dedicated to helping teams build the future. With its products—Lucidchart, Lucidspark, and Lucidscale—teams are supported from ideation to execution and are empowered to align around a shared vision, clarify complexity, and collaborate visually, no matter where they are. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucid.co.

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Leading Visually: A Guide on Visual Leadership

“Leadership is not about being the best. Leadership is about making everyone else better.” Here’s why this unattributed quote rings so true:

In part, leadership involves assembling the right teams – the individuals with the knowhow, and the skills required to get the work done. But it’s also about building trust, both team and organization-wide, and providing the resources necessary to execute projects and daily work functions efficiently. However, as many great leaders know, this is the bare minimum, or a piece of the pie, if you will.

Great leaders embrace the old adage that two heads are better than one; that organizations and groups can accomplish more than individuals can on their own . Together, people produce more output, create groundbreaking ideas and innovations, and actively disrupt the status quo – all of which is crucial for an organization to succeed. Despite this truth, getting employees to work together and share ownership of projects and initiatives is a perennial challenge for leaders everywhere.

Leading Visually

In our ten plus years of being in business, we’ve helped clients address this challenge by targeting underlying issues with visual strategy . By helping leaders and management lead visually, we’ve helped align organizations, provide direction, and give work purpose and passion. If our work in visual leadership has shown us anything, it’s that:

• Leaders leverage the skills, knowledge, and expertise of those who make up the organization.
• Leaders unite teams and employees with organizational values and goals.
• Leaders provide a clear path forward to achieve goals and execute initiatives successfully.

Visuals are the tool our clients use to anchor these three facets of leadership. It’s how the clients we support are able to develop their teams, and how they are able to commit to the success of the organization. If you’re intrigued by the idea of visual leadership or are interested in learning about leading visually, you’ve come to the right place.

1. Leveraging the skills, knowledge, and expertise of the organization

You’re probably familiar with the myriad ways we incorporate visuals into business practices. From social listening murals, to graphic recording and graphic facilitation – visuals are the central component of what we do. Through visual leadership, our team of visual strategists are able to increase collaboration and engagement, capture insight, and create visual summaries of discussions, decisions, and strategic plans.

Visuals are a medium that allows participants to bring their best selves forward. When attendee input is visibly recorded, individuals are more willing to contribute to the conversation. In this sense, visuals offer the perfect opportunity to highlight and equalize voices to ensure that the discussion is evenly distributed and no gems are overlooked.

When insight is captured, patterns and linkages between ideas emerge. Team members begin to recognize similarities to seemingly disparate trains of thought, which prompts further development of ideas. With visual support, the strong ideas stand out, attendees acknowledge where they fit in the picture, and your team is left energized to achieve the overarching goal.

Leaders who use visuals to amplify the skills, knowledge, and expertise of those who make up their teams and organization understand that their greatest asset is their people. What better way to leverage their input and collectively unify them than with visuals?

2. Uniting with purpose

In our work, it’s not uncommon to come across the following problem: the team does the work, but lacks the passion or excitement needed to generate new ideas and maintain motivation. In other words, teams who struggle with the “why” behind the work they are doing. A little visual support can go a long way toward igniting inspiration within teams.

With the introduction of visual work, group energy starts to shift. Teams become more engaged and excited to take place in a meeting that disrupts the same old. Visuals help participants literally see the value of collaboration and working together to achieve something greater than themselves.

When we facilitate meetings, we help team members inhabit the organization or team’s mission by personalizing the professional. Visual leadership taps into what drives each individual to show up, and uncover shared goals for individuals and organizations. The result is a united front, aligned with the organization and their goals.

3. Mapping out the path to success

What’s the greatest perk of hiring a graphic facilitator? Visual documentation leaves a tangible artifact, an actual roadmap, of all that you have planned. Good ideas aren’t lost at the conclusion of the session, and goals and objectives are defined for all team members. In fact, those who lead visually can choose a direction, AND provide a map that details how to get there.

With every point visually documented, there is little room for confusion or misinterpretation. A visual summary of the meeting makes the path forward universally clear. And, with recognizable iconography from collectively generated ideas, a sense of shared ownership is created for all participants.

Leading visually is a proven way to capitalize on an organization’s human capital. Leaders who use visuals help unify participants to organizational goals, and set them up to see them through to their success. If you’re looking to tap into your team’s potential, align teams, or direct with visuals, try visual leadership! Give us a call to start leading visually today .

What can your team achieve with visuals?

Download our graphic facilitation capabilities deck to see how we help leaders leverage insight, align teams, and define successful projects and initiatives.

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Images matter: the power of the visual in political communication

Associate Professor of Political Communication, Bournemouth University

Senior Lecturer in Marketing Communication, Bournemouth University

Associate Professor of Media and Communication, Bournemouth University

Disclosure statement

Darren Lilleker has received funding from the AHRC.

Anastasia Veneti and Daniel Jackson do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Bournemouth University provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

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Human culture is a visual culture. From cave paintings to selfies, we have always used images to tell stories about our lives, experiences and understanding of the world.

These images are particularly potent when they not only depict, but instruct us about social norms – when they shape attitudes and behaviour on everything from the role of women to ideas about nationhood.

But the idea that a picture “never lies” is a powerful – and inaccurate – adage. For they do not always tell the whole story. And the fact that images may be strategically constructed, manipulated or chosen carefully to convey an impression, can often go unnoticed by the people looking at them.

This is a problem, because images tap into a fundamental element of human reasoning. They have a resonant power to stir strong emotions – of fear, dislike, love, hate, and everything in between. Widely shared footage of the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi led to the first protests in Tunisia and the eventual fall of the Ben Ali regime .

But we do not need to look for exceptional circumstances to find images having political power. Images of migrants have been used to promote anti-immigration stances; images of homeless veterans are used to counter government policies to house refugees; images of stranded polar bears are used to promote environmental policies.

All of these are examples of images being chosen to convey specific messages. They can also be carefully constructed, such as when British the prime minister, Boris Johnson, spoke recently in front of ranks of uniformed police officers – a setting which may have been planned to enforce an image of power and strength. But there are also images which defy planning, such as Johnson struggling with a large bull, which can be used by critics as an easy metaphor, mocking his ability to control events.

Don’t believe your eyes

Images tap into attitudes, but not always in the same way for every viewer. Instead, an image’s perceived level of influence is based on “believability”. This is the idea that it is true if we agree, fake if we disagree. And it is here that the power of images intersects with the great challenge of the digital age.

Fake news , for example, is awarded far greater power if delivered with an image that appears believable and reinforces existing media tropes and public beliefs.

But the ease with which images can be adjusted and skewed for a specific political purpose, like slowing down a video to make a politician appear drunk , makes the persuasive power of visual evidence highly dangerous.

Our research into the power of images and visual political communication suggests it can be positive or negative for a pluralist democracy. The dependent factor is how it is used.

In the context of election campaigns, for example, the digital age enables a more negative environment. It is easy to create a simple attack message and gain traction, as voters create their own election campaign communication and associated memes.

Read more: I create manipulated images and videos – but quality may not matter much

Yet platforms such as Instagram can also be used to humanise a candidate. Following the example of Barack Obama and others, many politicians have embraced the use of selfies and social media films to attempt to ingratiate themselves with the electorate. One recent example was Rory Stewart , whose use of social media gained him attention during his short bid for the leadership of the UK Conservative Party.

But while such tactics can mobilise supporters, manage impressions, and amplify political messages, it also means political campaigns become more superficial. The question is whether citizens are more manipulated as the visual vocabularies of election candidates further emotionalise political communication.

Such processes are not isolated to campaigns of course. Political leaders use visual communication to shape their public image, and subtle differences in visual representation can have significant effects on their public perceptions.

Seeing through people

President Donald Trump constantly uses images on social media to create an impression of a certain kind of success, power, and leadership. He also appears to be ever mindful of the image he portrays, putting great effort into his stance and gestures, and displays of presidential power.

The use of symbolism is widespread in the political sphere, as political actors seek to harness the power of social media for impression management. Such devices also prove effective, with even the simplest facial expression able to have a profound impact on people’s perceptions.

Amateur activists too have learned to harness the power of visual communication. Images denoting solidarity and collective action have been used by campaigns like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo to show how social media, and its potential for the co-creation of compelling visual montages, permits new forms of public political expression.

But despite campaigns attempting to tap into the political currency of pictures, different content forms elicit different emotional responses. The challenge for protest movements is to develop a consistent, interconnected theme, and to be aware of their audience and differences in reception.

Visual political communication has become increasingly important over recent years. It is central to the politics of illusion, and plays an important role in the phenomenon of populist rhetoric. Visuals are thus central to the politics of our time, for good or ill, with the power to stimulate emotions and elicit engagement – among an often disengaged and apathetic electorate.

• International politics
• UK politics
• Boris Johnson
• Political communication

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Executive Dean, Faculty of Health

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• JOLE 2023 Special Issue
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• Developing Leadership Capacity Using Visual Thinking Strategies

Saya Kakim and Kerry Priest 10.12806/V19/I3/A4

Introduction

The ability to navigate complexity, uncertainty, and diversity of perspectives is crucial for emerging leaders. It may require exploring new educational practices and approaches to leadership education programs in university settings. Contemporary leadership approaches offer new lenses that support innovative practice.

Contemporary study of post-heroic leadership and the development of communicative, discursive, and relational approaches to leadership has grown significantly over the time (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2012; Cunliffe & Eriksen, 2011; Drath, 2001; Raelin, 2011; Uhl-Bien & Ospina, 2012). From a constructionist perspective, leadership is viewed as a co-constructed process in which communication is essential (Fairhurst & Grant, 2010), emphasizing dialogue and sense-making (Drath et al., 2008; Palus & Drath, 2001), discursive exchange and dialogic practice (Gergen & Hersted, 2016).

Student-centered art-based pedagogical models such as Visual Thinking Strategies TM (VTS), incorporate a set of discursive practices that foster sense-making. We (authors) have employed VTS and other visual learning approaches in interdisciplinary settings (curricular and co-curricular) with students at Kansas State University. Even though this paper focuses on practical implications of contemporary leadership approaches for college student leadership development, VTS is an inclusive engagement practice in multiple settings.

Review of Related Scholarship

Discursive Approaches to Leadership Education

Drath et al. (2008) argue that advancing leadership theory and practice calls for “a new and more integrative ontology” (p. 635). They suggest a movement away from the simplistic (and outdated) ontological commitment of an entitive “tripod” framework: leadership is about leaders,  followers, and a common goal . Citing increasingly complex contexts for leadership that require relational and collective approaches, they reframe the tripod to focus on leadership outcomes:  direction, alignment , and commitment (Drath et al., 2008). This framing shifts the focus of leadership development from, “Who are leaders and how do they interact with followers to attain shared goals?” to “How people who share work in collectives produce direction, alignment, and commitment” (2008, p. 638). This ontological shift opens up new ways of conceptualizing leadership through a relational and collective lens. Central to this perspective are processes of meaning making through dialogue (Cunliffe & Ericksen, 2011; Palus & Drath, 2001).

Fairhurst’s (2007; 2009) discursive leadership approach illuminates the ways that language constitutes reality. Leadership actors have the ability to co-create contexts and shape social realities in and through discourse, and are in turn shaped by them (Fairhurst, 2009). A systemic constructionist approach emphasizes discursive practices, including sense-making, in investigating performance of leadership (Barge & Fairhurst, 2008). The implication for leadership educators and scholars, then, is to both analyze and seek to develop discursive strategies used to construct meanings of leadership.

The use of reflection and dialogue to develop meaning is central to leadership education pedagogy, practice, and professional development. Examples include the use of personal journey narrative (Swain et al., 2020), storytelling (Priest & Seemiller, 2018), literature circles (Collins et al., 2019), coaching (Kliewer & Wanjiku Ndirangu, 2019), collaborative artistic production (Hutnick et al., 2017), and mediated dialogue (Jenkins, 2019; McGuire et al., 2015). Specially, mediated dialogue is a strategy developed by the Center for Creative Leadership that uses thought-provoking images (visual objects) to facilitate reflective, insightful conversation. The process involves “putting something in the middle” – a picture or small object – that becomes the focus of conversation (McGuire et al., 2015, p. 3). Shifting focus to the object invites multiple interpretations and perspectives that can lead to new insights and generate innovative paths forward (McGuire et al., 2015; Palus & Drath, 2001).

These practices may be considered forms of experiential learning, a process by which the learner is actively engaged in investigating, staying curious, solving problems, and constructing meaning (Association of Experiential Education, n.d.). While the outcome of these experiences is often some form of personal learning or meaning making, we can also assume that the process of reflection itself can be an act of discursive leadership. Thus, the ways we frame, engage in, and debrief reflective dialogic activities can open up new understandings and develop discursive skills.

Visual Thinking Strategies

Initially, the research-based teaching method VTS was developed by cognitive psychologist A. Housen and museum educator P. Yenawine as an elementary school curriculum. Later, Yenawine and Miller examined how using the art-based pedagogical model helps the development of critical thinking and communication across disciplines, including medical schools and nursing programs (Hailey, 2014; Yenawine & Miller, 2014).

We consider VTS as an advanced approach to mediated dialogue, as well as an experiential learning model for meaning making. VTS is grounded in dialogue, due to the multilayered and interpretative nature of works of art (Hailey et al., 2015; Yenawine & Miller, 2014). Through facilitated discussion methods, participants are encouraged to construct their own meanings and explore diverse interpretations in response to a piece of art (Chin, 2017). VTS provides an opportunity for students to develop multiple ways to read and understand situations. Building the capacity to be present and reflect on communication experience assists leadership (Barge & Fairhurst, 2008).

Furthermore, skilled VTS facilitation creates an active learning environment for students’ responses to be acknowledged and new meanings to be co-created and developed (Chin, 2017; Hailey, 2014). Framing the development of leadership as dialogic practice (Gergen & Hersted, 2016), VTS fosters students’ ability to transform views and ensure cooperative problem solving (Landorf, 2006; Yenawine & Miller, 2014).

From a systemic constructionist approach and practical theory of leadership (Barge & Fairhurst, 2008), discursive practices are essential for leadership development. As an experiential learning model, VTS promotes an innovative way to enhance the experience of dialogue and sense-making. It also fosters a learning environment for students to explore multiplicity, imagination, and uncertainty.

Description of the Practice

Our description of this leadership development practice is grounded by the assumption that higher education institutions play a unique role in developing leadership capacity (Chunoo & Osteen, 2016) and that interdisciplinary, high-impact educational experiences can build leadership capacity and efficacy (Priest & Clegorne, 2015). First, we will describe the use of mediated dialogue within a pathway to STEM program for undergraduate students. Then, we will describe the more formal process of VTS within interdisciplinary programming at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University.

Mediated dialogue was used to deepen self-reflection of underrepresented minority students (URM) through a Pathways to STEM program at Kansas State University (see also KS-LSAMP, https://www.kstate.edu/lsamp/leadership/). Twelve community college students who participated in the eight-week summer research program in 2019 took part in a mediated dialogue activity. The summer research program was aimed to provide academic preparation to URM in STEM fields by pairing with research mentors at K-State.

Employing visuals in facilitated discussions can foster self-reflection and ensure that engagement approaches are culturally inclusive. The Center for Creative Leadership’s Visual Explorer® image cards were utilized as a tool to create a space for students to self-reflect and make sense of their research experiences on individual and collective levels. The goal of the mediated dialogue activity was to learn about students’ experiences in the program and foster articulation of their thoughts and feelings.

The process utilized intentionally framed appreciative prompt questions (Cockell & McArthur-Blair, 2012). For example, students browsed and selected an image card in response to the question, “What did you learn were your greatest strengths?” Students then described their selected image, explaining how the pictures represented their responses to the question. Through a collective debrief discussion, they reflected on the experience and surfaced valuable learning, insights, or application.

As an advanced form of mediated dialogue, VTS offers an innovative way to engage participants in dialogue and sense-making. VTS sessions have become a regular part of the interdisciplinary projects conducted by the Beach Museum staff members with K-State departments such as landscape architecture, mathematics, and veterinary medicine.

VTS discussion is guided by the following protocol:

• The facilitator presents a carefully selected image. An ideal image should contain strong narratives and understandable meanings given specific students ages and backgrounds.
• The facilitator starts the process by asking to silently look at the image for a few moments.
• By asking the meaning making question such as “What is going on/happening in this picture?”, the facilitator encourages students to make interpretive comments. Next, the facilitator paraphrases every comment along with pointing the visual evidence.
• By asking, “What do you see that makes you say that?”, the facilitator encourages students to provide visual evidence in a concrete way which keeps the conversation focused on the subject.
• By linking comments and remaining neutral, the facilitator builds the connections between students’ thoughts and encourages students to make their own connections.
• The facilitator asks, “What more can we find?” to keep encouraging the notion that there is always more to find.
• The facilitator thanks the group for their participation (Hailey et al., 2015)

This set of discursive practices of VTS is closely related to leadership practices. VTS can result in empowering participants to communicate and recognize multiple perspectives (Hailey, 2014). Asking an open-ended question such as “What is going on in this picture?” for intentionally selected images with elements that could be interpreted variously offers an opportunity to develop an ability to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty (Hailey, 2014; Yenawine & Miller, 2014). In this regard, by engaging in VTS sessions, students can develop skills for dealing with complex information, navigating adaptive challenges (Heifetz, 1994), and divergent set of meanings and interpretations (Barge & Fairhurst, 2008).

By paraphrasing and accepting each comment neutrally, the facilitator creates a respectful environment for everyone to be heard and acknowledged, which promotes inclusive communication and leadership. By linking comments, including both agreements and disagreements, the facilitator fosters meaning making, dialogue, and collaborative learning. These outcomes align with discursive practices of leadership and leadership-as-practice (Barge, 2012; Raelin, 2011). Participants are encouraged to notice new facets of the situation and reconsider their views through the question, “What more can we find?” (Hailey, 2014). Shared insights lead to mutual transformation that can signify relational leadership (Uhl-Bien, 2006). Consequently, students can advance their leadership capacity by engaging in VTS sessions over time.

Discussion of Outcomes/Results

The integration of this tool within our student programs and leadership courses is ongoing, and there is a need to develop formal evaluation of learning outcomes and impact. However, our observational data suggests that participation in mediated dialogue and VTS sessions assists students with:

• advancing observation skills and active listening
• getting comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity
• developing skills for navigating complex situations
• engaging in collaborative learning and problem-solving
• recognizing multiple perspectives and a diverse set of interpretation

Moreover, participation in VTS sessions helps students to develop evidence-based reasoning and critical thinking over time (Hailey, 2014).

Reflections of the Practitioner

Reflecting on VTS observation and facilitation experiences in an interdisciplinary setting, we would like to point out that contextually grounded selection of pieces of art is the essential step for a successful VTS discussion. Multilayered meanings of works of art can create an inclusive learning environment and allow authentically connect with one another. It also helps facilitators and participants meet each other where they are at as responses and reactions tend to be linked to participants’ past experiences and identities. Also, maintaining non-judgmental paraphrasing and linking of every comment is crucial for deep meaning making and dialogue and, ultimately, the mutual transformation.

Recommendations

There are multiple opportunities to explore the future application of VTS, including the advancement of discursive practices using art-based pedagogy for capacity building and leadership development programs. We believe that VTS promotes interdisciplinary, consistent path forward in leadership education. It has an enormous potential for educational practices in university settings.

VTS offers a developmental approach consistent with evolving theory and practice. There is an opportunity for further examination of post-heroic leadership through individual and collective sense-making and dialogue in multiple settings. VTS has excellent potential for advancing ways to foster inclusive civic engagement. VTS can also be used as an inquiry method/engaged research.

Acknowledgement

We wish to acknowledge the help provided by our colleagues Linda Duke, Kim Richards, and Kathrine Walker Schlageck from the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University. Their insight, expertise, and VTS training greatly assisted with work on this manuscript.

Association for Experiential Education. (n.d.) What is experiential education? https://www.aee.org/what-is-ee

Alvesson, M. & Sveningsson, S. (2012) Un- and Re-packing leadership: Context, relations, constructions and politics. In M. Uhl-Bien & S. M. Ospina (Eds.), Advancing relational leadership: A dialogue among perspectives (pp. 203-225). Information Age Publishing.

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An Overview of Visual Leadership Studies

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In this chapter, I present an overview of the literature on visual leadership as an emerging field of study and evaluate the progress made in this discipline and reflect on the insights revealed by this research and its future directions. I survey scholarship that has been influential in the development of this field, including work in such related fields as visual and cultural studies. I also elaborate on the notions of propaganda and metaphor that have played significant roles in the development of this field. The aim is to provide a holistic sense of visual leadership.

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See also (Chen & Meindl, 1991 ; Gioia et al., 2000 ; Hatch & Schultz, 1997 ; Hayward et al., 2004 ; McQuarrie & Mick, 1999 ; Melewar & Saunders, 2000 ).

Other key studies of aesthetic leadership include (de Monthoux et al., 2007 ; Dobson, 1999 ; Duke, 1986 ; de Monthoux, 2004; Küpers, 2004 ; Moore & Beck, 1984 ; Schroeder, 2008 ; Taylor & Hansen, 2005 ).

In addition to those mentioned here, key discussions of methodologies for conducting research using visual materials include (Banks, 2001 , 2008 ; Barbour, 2014 ; Collier & Collier, 1986 ; Epstein et al., 2006 ; Glaw et al., 2017 ; Hamilton, 2006 ; Jenkings et al., 2008 ; Knowles & Cole, 2008 ; Noble & Bestley, 2011 ; Pink, 2007 ; Prosser, 1998 ; Stanczak, 2007 ).

Other influential studies of organizational aesthetics include (Carr & Hancock, 2003 ; Dean et al., 1997 ; Dickinson & Svensen, 2000 ; Hancock, 2002 ; Harding, 2002 ; Larsen & Schultz, 1992 ; Marchand, 1998 ; Strati & de Montoux, 2002 ; Taylor, 2002 ; Taylor & Hansen, 2005 ).

On charismatic leadership, see further (Awamleh & Gardner, 1999 ; Beyer, 1999 ; Bligh & Schyns, 2007 ; Boal & Bryson, 1988 ; Bono & Ilies, 2006 ; Bryman, 1992 ; Conger, 1989 ; Deluga, 2001 ; Gardner & Avolio, 1998 ; Hartog & Verberg, 1997 ; Howellk, 1988 ; Hunt, 1999 ; Hunt, Boal, & Dodge, 1999 ; Jacobsen & House, 2001 ; Kim et al., 2002 ; Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1996 ; Meindl, 1995 ; Mumford & Van Doorn, 2001 ; Shamir et al., 1993 , 1994 ; Strange & Mumford, 2002 ; Trice & Beyer, 1986 ; Yagil, 1998 ).

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Bitar, A. (2020). An Overview of Visual Leadership Studies. In: Bedouin Visual Leadership in the Middle East. Palgrave Studies in Business, Arts and Humanities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57397-3_2

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Design Your Own Leadership Model

Lift your leadership to new heights using Doug Conant’s 6-Step BLUEPRINT process.

Learn About Leadership Models

What is a Leadership Model?

A leadership model is a representation of a system, composed of concepts and practices, which you use to help people – including you – know and understand your approach to leadership. At its heart, it is a visual representation of what matters most to you as it relates to your leadership and how you intend to behave as you work to reach your goals. Ultimately, with the creation of your leadership model—using the 6-step BLUEPRINT process—you will create a succinct encapsulation of how you plan to lead. The model you create will be a highly customized expression of who you are, what you believe, and how you want to act.

Learn to Lead Like Only YOU Can

Each person has their own unique leadership voice, their own approach that reflects who they are. The purpose of the Blueprint is to help you find your own distinct voice, empower you to express it, and help you leverage it to get better results in work and life.

Doug Conant’s Leadership Model

The ConantLeadership Flywheel

The key to Leadership That Works is found in the 8 connected practice areas of the ConantLeadership Flywheel . At ConantLeadership, we champion this high-impact model, based on 40 years of leadership experience and study, as a highly effective way for 21st century leaders (who do not yet have a model of their own) to deliver enduring value to all stakeholders. Each pillar in the flywheel is anchored in Inspiring Trust and Honoring People, which are the two foundational elements of elite performance. When these eight components are developed in harmony, they are a powerful, self-reinforcing tool for transforming individuals and organizations with everlasting momentum.

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Examples to Inspire

Personal Leadership Models

Bill Brandt

• Company: Henry Schein
• Title: Executive Director and Chief Customer Service Officer

Melissa Tassie

• Director of Learning and Development, NetJets
• Strategic Thought Leader

John Wooden

• Title & Organization: UCLA Bruins men’s basketball (Head coach, 1948–1975)
• “Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

Stephen Covey

• Author of 7 habits of highly effective people
• World renowed leadership expert

Chris Abboushi

 Astellas Pharma US TitleDirector, CL&D, Field Leadership Development, Managed Markets, Headquarters People Development

• Senior Advisor, Partnership for Public Service
• Former Senior Intelligence Officer

Randall Landry

• Company: MITRE Corporation
• Title: Technical Director and Division Head – Infrastructure & Networking

Kristen Heffernan

• Company: Henry Schein MicroMD
• Position: General Manager
• Quote: “I choose to lead because I love helping people reach their potential and I accelerate that with honesty, integrity, and perseverance.”

Linda Hagerty-Dotterer

• Company: CSL Behring
• Title: Executive Director, Change Management & Culture

What specific practices (e.g., “thank you notes” or “offsite meetings”) have you used to help bring your model to life?

What specific practices have you used to help bring your model to life.

Albert G. Morales

• Company: Amerisource Bergen Corp.
• Title: Chief Transformation Officer

DisPlay none

What is the reporting structure how many people do you lead, describe in a few sentences the background and overview of your model., what specific practices have you used that have helped bring your model to life, how is your model helping you in the real world.

Share Your Leadership Model With Us

Once you’ve used the BLUEPRINT process to design your own personal leadership model, share your model with us here and we may celebrate your model on our website and social channels.

The impact of visual representations of leadership in tribal dominated societies : a critical qualitative study of aesthetic leadership in the United Arab Emirates

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Aesthetic leadership concerns the manner in which artists, and other aesthetic workers, perform leadership functions within groups, communities and culture, often outside established positions of authority. Aesthetics has generally been concerned with questions of beauty and the notion of universal tastes. Kant argued that human response to art is disinterested, which led to an ongoing debate about the relationship with visual culture. Others have argued that there is a distinct aesthetic realm, which allows people to respond to beauty in terms of colour and form. Recently, artists have been called upon for aesthetic leadership in management – as leaders, practitioners, visionaries, and inspirers. Thus, aesthetic leadership need not refer merely to creativity or vision; rather aesthetic leadership may emerge from insight into cultural, political, or interpersonal issues, aesthetic statements on social injustice or crucial cultural concerns, or, at a more general level, providing alternative ways of seeing problems, history, or received wisdom. In this way, aesthetic leadership may either complement or contradict more traditional leadership forms, such as politics, religion or management. It may be that aesthetic leadership draws some of its power from the position of the aesthetic producer outside conventional leadership positions.

Esmaeil Zeiny

Leadership Quarterly

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We introduce aesthetic leadership as a promising approach in leadership studies. Two current movements in leadership research, the inclusion of followers in leadership models and the exploration of subjective leadership qualities, make taking an aesthetic perspective in leadership especially attractive and timely. Aesthetics relates to felt meaning generated from sensory perceptions, and involves subjective, tacit knowledge rooted in feeling and emotion. We believe the aesthetics of leadership is an important, but little understood, aspect of organizational life. For example, while we know followers must attribute leadership qualities such as charisma and authenticity to leaders to allow for social influence, we know little about how these processes operate. We propose that followers use their aesthetic senses in making these assessments. We relate aesthetic leadership to several current topics in leadership research, and outline the assumptions and methods of aesthetic leadership.

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How the Skills of a Visual Leader Benefit Everyone

Inspired in part by computer engineers who began to organize information in a new architectural manner, graphic facilitation was born out of the belief that visual representation is vital to clear, effective group communication.

The graphics we create for meetings, seminars, workshops and conferences serve as a visual thinking tool to help get everyone on the same page and arrive at new insights. When ideas are recorded visually, participants can literally see and examine what facilitators, presenters, panelists and other participants are talking about.

These days there is a greater understanding of individuals’ thought processes than ever before. Growing numbers of visual leaders around the world are heading the transformation in how we dialogue with teams and think during group meetings.

The pay off from the practice of working visually on a regular basis is BIG! You actively improve your personal cognitive and comprehension skills.  Or as David Sibbet, Founder and President of The Grove Consultants International  and graphic facilitation pioneer known for his series of books on Visual Meeting methods explains, through the practice of thinking visually, you have the chance to “upgrade” your own mental models.

In his latest installment, “Visual Leaders: New Tools for Visioning, Management and Organization Change,” Sibbet provides businesses with strategies to incorporate writing, drawing, diagramming and visualizing” in their meetings to boost communication and effectiveness.

According to Sibbet, a visual leader is someone who:

• Practices being more conscious of his/her visual communications (P. 73)
• Helps pick the right display formats to support what he or she is talking about (P. 42)
• Harvests multiple different metaphors/mental models for the gifts in each (P. 55)
• Encourages people to talk about the metaphors, analogies and mental models they are using to make choices about strategy and situation (P. 56)

And perhaps most importantly, someone who “Gets to know the native understandings of their audience and followers because they understand that those are the channels for connection.” (P. 104)

What we really love is Sibbet’s overall message that visual thinking skills are for everyone; it’s just a matter of developing your talent by using your skills regularly.

At Get the Picture, we’ve built our reputation on delivering visual meeting services to companies through our consulting engagements. And as the “visual revolution” gains momentum, more and more organizations are reaching out to us to learn visual facilitation/meeting methods.

Now, we are training entire teams to develop visual leadership skills so they can transform their own unique work processes into visual ones.

Check back for our next post to hear how an entire division within the Canadian Government is incorporating visual facilitation into their work, and how they’re growing as visual leaders each and every day!

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Logic models

Quick summary.

A logic model is a visual representation of an organization or program that shows what its inputs, activities, outputs and intended outcomes are. By putting those details down on paper, logic models are useful for helping leadership and staff clarify what the organization does, what its theory of change is, and how successful it is at achieving its mission.

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Q1. What is a logic model?

A logic model is a detailed visual representation of an organization or office or program or initiative (we'll just say organization) that conveys its theory of change. It communicates how an organization works by depicting the intended relationships among its components:

• Inputs: The resources that the organization uses, whether people, materials, funding, and so on.
• Activities: What the organization does in its day to day work.
• Outputs: What the organization produces because of its activities.
• Outcomes: What the organization aims to achieve.

Logic models are important and useful for several reasons, including:

• Generating a clear and shared understanding of how a program works. In other words, if program staff work together to create a detailed logic model, it helps to clarify what the program does and why.
• Improvement work. Once a program has created a logic model -- say during a leadership offsite -- it's a useful entrée into a discussion of where bottlenecks or other problems are occurring are how those could be addressed.
• Strategic planning work. Logic models help clarify what the program is trying to achieve which can be valuable for strategic planning work such as goal setting.
• Serving as foundation for program evaluation. Logic models are also a useful basis for a discussion around the question, "Is what we're doing as a program (our activities and outputs) actually producing the results (outcomes) we were hoping and expecting?" Answering that question is, in fact, a basic form of program evaluation.

Q3. What's an example logic model?

Figure 3 shows an example from a report published by the U.S. Department of Education of a logic model of a hypothetical computer-assisted math program within a school called Summing Up, designed to help students practice their math skills. The inputs include the software, teachers' time, associated fees, classroom space and other factors. Activities, meanwhile, focuses on what goes on within the program, including software use by students and teacher's related work. Next, outputs are what the program produces and includes students achieving the target level (90 hours per year) of engagement with the program. Lastly, outcomes are divided in this case into two categories -- short term and long term -- and related to the intended improvements in students' math abilities.

Q4. In which direction do you read or create a logic model?

You generally read a logic model from left to right, starting with inputs and reading how they translate into activities, outputs and outcomes.

When you develop a logic model, however, you can choose the direction that makes the most sense for your situation (see Figure 4):

• Left to right logic model development works best for programs that are up and running. It focuses on the "value chain" (how value is created by the organization) by putting on paper the inputs, then the activities created by those inputs, then the outcomes produced, and finally the desired outcomes.
• Right to left logic model development uses what might be called reverse logic and is especially useful if a program is being designed. The idea here is to write down the desired long-term outcomes to be achieved by the program and then work backwards: What nearer-term outcomes would be needed? What outputs would we need to produce to achieve those outcomes? And so on all, the way back to inputs.

HANDOUTS / TEMPLATES

• Warm-up exercise: [ Template here ] For a team that is developing a logic model for their organization, it can be useful to start with a light-hearted practice version: creating a logic model for a summer vacation. This roughly 20-minute exercise can be done in breakout groups of three to five people, followed by presentations of their chosen destinations and logic models. Facilitators can provide quick feedback on the logic models. Note that some groups may define activities as preparation for a vacation (e.g., buy a guidebook or book tickets) while others may define them as vacation activities (e.g., go snorkeling or relax on the beach), providing an opportunity for the facilitator to underscore that logic model categories can be interpreted differently depending on the purpose.
• Organizational logic model development exercise: [ Template here ] This template can be used for a facilitated group exercise to enable staff to develop a logic model for their organization -- for example, a 60-minute exercise, whether in breakout groups or as a full group.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Article: “ One Key to Making a Leadership Offsite a Success: Logic Models, ” by Andrew Feldman, Government Executive. 
• Chapter: Chapter 1, "Introducing Logic Models, " is available for free online of the book The Logic Model Guidebook by Lisa Wyatt Knowlton and Cynthia Phillips.
• Five questions public agencies should ask to put their logic models to work : Cynthia Phillips, formerly National Science Foundation
• Using logic models, a key building block of results-focused programs : Tom Chapel, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Please contact us if your organization needs assistance in developing logic models or facilitating workshops to do so.

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Visualizations That Really Work

• Scott Berinato

Not long ago, the ability to create smart data visualizations (or dataviz) was a nice-to-have skill for design- and data-minded managers. But now it’s a must-have skill for all managers, because it’s often the only way to make sense of the work they do. Decision making increasingly relies on data, which arrives with such overwhelming velocity, and in such volume, that some level of abstraction is crucial. Thanks to the internet and a growing number of affordable tools, visualization is accessible for everyone—but that convenience can lead to charts that are merely adequate or even ineffective.

By answering just two questions, Berinato writes, you can set yourself up to succeed: Is the information conceptual or data-driven? and Am I declaring something or exploring something? He leads readers through a simple process of identifying which of the four types of visualization they might use to achieve their goals most effectively: idea illustration, idea generation, visual discovery, or everyday dataviz.

This article is adapted from the author’s just-published book, Good Charts: The HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More Persuasive Data Visualizations.

Know what message you’re trying to communicate before you get down in the weeds.

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Knowledge workers need greater visual literacy than they used to, because so much data—and so many ideas—are now presented graphically. But few of us have been taught data-visualization skills.

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Inexpensive tools allow anyone to perform simple tasks such as importing spreadsheet data into a bar chart. But that means it’s easy to create terrible charts. Visualization can be so much more: It’s an agile, powerful way to explore ideas and communicate information.

…But Strategy Is Key

Don’t jump straight to execution. Instead, first think about what you’re representing—ideas or data? Then consider your purpose: Do you want to inform, persuade, or explore? The answers will suggest what tools and resources you need.

Not long ago, the ability to create smart data visualizations, or dataviz, was a nice-to-have skill. For the most part, it benefited design- and data-minded managers who made a deliberate decision to invest in acquiring it. That’s changed. Now visual communication is a must-have skill for all managers, because more and more often, it’s the only way to make sense of the work they do.

• Scott Berinato is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review and the author of Good Charts Workbook: Tips Tools, and Exercises for Making Better Data Visualizations and Good Charts: The HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More Persuasive Data Visualizations .

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Blog Marketing 10+ New Leadership Infographic Examples, Ideas & Templates

10+ New Leadership Infographic Examples, Ideas & Templates

Written by: Ryan McCready Jan 28, 2020

A lot of people said that infographics were going to be just a fad.

But after almost ten years of that prediction being made, I think it’s time to put that rumor to rest.

In fact, instead of fading away, infographics have become a standard type of visual content.

You can use infographics to simplify a complicated topic, visualize data, or summarize a piece of content.

Almost anyone can create an infographic too, but sometimes you need a little extra inspiration to get the creative juices flowing.

That’s why I thought it might be a good idea to round up some new and inspiring infographics.

Hopefully, these leadership infographics won’t just help you design an amazing infographic but help you become a better leader this year.

So let’s get started!

1. The Qualities of a Great Leader Infographic

CREATE THIS INFOGRAPHIC TEMPLATE

Let’s start this roundup with a very simple but well-designed leadership infographic.

Just like some great leaders, this infographic is more functional than flashy. Instead of using a ton of images or icons, the text is the main focal point.

They achieved this by using extra bold headers for each section while using a somewhat thin font for the rest of the written content. This approach makes the whole infographic really easy to scan and jump from point to point.

A reader could get a ton of good information just from those headers. Compelling headers make audiences want to read the whole infographic.

So if you’re going to create a minimalistic infographic like this, make sure to pick a bold font to create some eye-catching contrast. A thin font would just blend into the background.

Finally, I really like how compact and shareable this list infographic is. You could easily print this off and hang it up in your office, or share it on social media.

2. 6 Ways To Avoid Common Manager Mistakes Infographic

Getting someone to read your entire infographic can be tough. Sometimes you need to give them an extra to push down the page, even if your content is amazing!

This creative leadership infographic uses a simple dotted line to connect each point and draw the reader deeper into the content. I like this tactic because it’s subtle.

Additionally, one thing that can quickly distract someone from your content is using mismatched icons .

For example, on this infographic, they use the same style of icons so everything looks consistent. But if the designer would have used a random icon, your eye would focus on that instead of the interesting written content.

3. Leadership Methods From Around The World Infographic

The first thing that caught my eye on this infographic was the simple illustrations of complex leadership topics. These visuals make it very easy to compare leadership styles across different countries as well.

Imagine trying to compare each of them if they just used text descriptions! It would be a chore and you would probably give up quickly.

Not only do these break each of the approaches into easily digestible chunks, but the readers will also remember the visual content a lot longer. According to experts, 65% of people are visual learners and people, in general, retain 80% of what they see.

When you compare this to people only remembering 20% of what they read each day, you quickly see how powerful simple graphics like this can be.

Plus as a social media marketer, I also really like that each section could be turned into its own social graphic with a few clicks. Like so:

CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA GRAPHIC

4. 7 Steps To Resolving Conflict At Work Infographic

Let’s be honest, conflict is going to happen at work, there is no getting around that.

A great leader will take the time to learn how to resolve that conflict. They also will make sure that their colleagues understand how to resolve conflict.

This simple HR infographic actually makes a somewhat uncomfortable topic a little more palatable. Plus, it’s a lot more engaging than another boring text document.

If someone were to receive this in an email, I can almost guarantee they would read the whole thing. I can’t say the same thing about a PDF or document with the exact same information.

It might not dive deep into some conflict resolution tactics, but it outlines the basic process that someone would follow. Even if you were to just read the headers of each section, you would know a lot about the topic.

5. How to Run a Meeting Like a Boss  Leadership Infographic

In this leadership infographic there really isn’t a ton of written information, especially when compared to the other examples in this roundup.

But sometimes you don’t have to say a lot for it to be useful. This infographic uses the KISS approach to make sure their tips are very actionable, no matter your background or industry. 

Now If you’re going to create a simple infographic like this, make sure your visuals are extremely eye-catching, like above. Otherwise, with no visual contrast, it will just look like another boring graphic.

Additionally, infographics like this are great for social media and mobile because they can be viewed quickly. And they look great on smaller screens, without having to zoom in to read the smaller text. A huge plus when you consider how marketing has evolved to be mobile first!

6.  7 Types of Managers in The Lion King Infographic

While I was doing research for this article, I saw a lot of leadership infographics that were very similar to this example. However, this is probably the most unique one and it makes you think about different types of leadership styles in a fun way.

This is another example that would do very well on social media because it takes a novel approach to a pretty generic topic.

Plus, if you can mix something specific to your industry with an overarching topic or pop culture phenomenon like the Lion King , your audience gets a lot bigger.

This is a tactic that we have used a lot to get our infographics featured in some of the biggest publications and shared by a ton of people. In the early days of Venngage, one infographic got so popular it crashed our site for a day or so!

7. The Difference Between A Boss & A Leader Infographic

I have always been a big fan of OfficeVibe and their comparison infographics . Somehow they are able to keep an extremely strong visual identity across all their content. As someone who has created hundreds of infographics, I can attest to how hard this is!

The instant you see one of their designs, you know it came from them and this leadership infographic is no different.

That said, the most impactful part of this design is how they split each side of the infographic. With the negative side being black, and the positive being colorful. Each of the illustrations also has a lot more positive tone on the colorful side which really helps strengthen their point.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it adds a lot of context to the infographic without directly saying it. Some people might not even notice the distinction but it will still affect how they consume the information.

8. Leadership Qualities That Build Strong Teams Infographic

If you haven’t been paying attention to the graphic design trends , you might not have heard that muted colors are extremely popular this year. This shift was mostly caused by the overuse of bright and bold colors for the past few years.

If you don’t know what muted colors are, just take a look at this infographic about the top leadership qualities of strong teams. In the simplest terms, muted colors are the opposite of vivid colors.

Now I didn’t just pick this infographic because of the color palette, although that’s what initially caught my eye.

I was also very impressed with how the designers used the shape of each section to pull your eye down the page. They could have just used rectangles to break up the infographic, but the slanted lines make it easy to jump from one section to the next.

Also, the very quirky data visualization at the bottom fits the theme of the infographic very well.

9. 6 Tips to Manage Remote Staff Leadership Infographic

Sooner or later you’re going to have to manage a remote worker or even a fully distributed team. In 2019, around 54% of U.S. employees work remotely at least once a month and 30% work remotely full time! There’s really no avoiding it anymore.

In fact, I have worked remotely the entire 4 years I have been at Venngage. So I know how difficult it can be to manage and interact with remote workers.

Like the first example, I appreciate that this simple list infographic is about the same size as a piece of paper. This means it could easily be sent out to all the leaders at your company or included in the onboarding materials each manager receives.

10. What Type Of Leader Are You Infographic

This leadership infographic is very similar to the Lion King example above. They both cover roughly the same information but present it in very different ways. 

I think this is a good illustration of how there isn’t a “right” way to create an infographic. As long as you present your information in an engaging way, your readers will be happy.

In this infographic, they’ve used a flow chart to create a “quiz”. Now it doesn’t matter where someone views this infographic, they will still get some value from it. You could find this on Pinterest or in another blog post and still be able to take the quiz. 

After you figure out what type of leader you are, they explain the pros and cons of each. I really like how the designer presented this information in a different section as it stops the infographic from looking too “messy”. 

11. 4 Ways To Keep Employees From Jumping Ship Infographic

We are currently in an era of high employment and there are a ton of open positions that companies can’t fill. That means that for the first time in a while, employees have a lot more power than employers .

So building a working culture where employees don’t randomly jump ship is incredibly important. You might not be able to fill that position as easily as you could have just a few years ago.

This example is a little different from the other leadership infographic examples. Instead of focusing on actionable management tips, they outline a few larger tactics that will affect your whole company.

The designer also used checkmark icons to make navigating each section very easy. Without them, there would be a wall of text under each section header. No one wants to read that! Especially when the infographic topic is so important.

Now It’s Time to Make Your Own Infographic!

CREATE THIS PROPOSAL TEMPLATE

Hopefully, you enjoyed all the leadership infographics in this first edition of our infographic inspiration series. Please let me know what kind of infographics we should cover next.

Now if you need some more help creating an infographic, I would start here:

How to Make an Infographic in 5 Steps

And if you want to learn more about the different types of infographics, check this article out: 

What Are the 9 Types of Infographics?

Further Reading:

• 20+ Essential Consulting Proposals
• 10 Crisis Communication + Management Plan Templates for Leaders

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A Visual Representation of My Strengths

Steph Wahlund Philosophy 1:1 Conversations , For Individuals , Personal Growth , personal reflection , Strengths 3

What You See

This photo was taken in 2013 at one of the last track meets of my college career. It was the indoor conference championships.

At Leadership Vision, we often ask the question, “ what do you see? ” when looking at an image.

When I look at this picture I see:

• A bar that is setting a standard
• Me attempting to meet that standard
• That not only am I meeting the standard, but I’m exceeding it, which is giving me confidence for the next jump when the bar will be higher
• A high jump standard holding the bar in place. This standard is telling me where I have come from, where I’m at, and where I’m going
• That everything in the background is blurry, and only me, the bar, and the standard are in focus
• Everything that is right with this jump and everything that’s wrong with it
• That my legs are at the right angle, but they should be closer together
• That I did a one arm block, that isn’t right or wrong, it’s just how I jump
• That my hips are pushed up, which is good, but my head isn’t tilted back, which is bad

When I look at this picture I see a physical representation of my Strengths.

I like to be measured. I like clear expectations with the opportunity for me to exceed those expectations. I have intense focus at the time of execution. I like seeing the progress I’ve made, seeing things, heights, checked off my list. I like that this photo shares with you a piece of who I am.

What You Don’t See

What you don’t see in this image is what happened before the jump and what happened after the jump.

Just looking at this photo, I know that I cleared this height. I know that because I know my jump. I know every step and movement of my approach.

• I put my right toe on my mark.
• I take a deep breath, in through my nose, out through my mouth.
• I shake out my hands.
• I rock back on my right heel three times.
• I take three long, powerful strides, and then I sprint.
• At the 6th step of my approach, I begin my curve.
• I dip my shoulder.
• I speed up and shorten my last three steps and plant!
• I ride my jump up as high as I can go then I turn.
• I push my hips and wait to flip my feet.
• I land on the mat and immediately look up to see where the bar is.

To me, it’s important that you not only see this snapshot but that you understand I had a process that took a long time to master to make this jump successful. It’s also important for you to know that I completed it. I finished the jump. Afterward, I went back and sat with my teammates. I anxiously waited for the bar to be raised to the next height. Then I repeated my process.

I may not clear the next height on the first try, the second try, or even the third try. Each height is a little scarier. I never know when the height will come that will force me to adjust my approach when my diligently practiced structure needs to be altered. But each time the bar was raised, my focus and determination intensified.

If I failed, I tried harder next time.

In the end, I never cleared my goal height. Part of me looks back on my high jump career and feels like I failed. But another part of me looks back and knows that each time I attempted to clear that height, I tried my hardest. I never gave up. For that, I am proud.

What Image Represents Your Strengths?

If asked to choose an image that represents your Strengths, what would you choose and why? Come up with your own narrative to go along with the image and share with a friend!

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17 Data Visualization Techniques All Professionals Should Know

• 17 Sep 2019

There’s a growing demand for business analytics and data expertise in the workforce. But you don’t need to be a professional analyst to benefit from data-related skills.

Becoming skilled at common data visualization techniques can help you reap the rewards of data-driven decision-making , including increased confidence and potential cost savings. Learning how to effectively visualize data could be the first step toward using data analytics and data science to your advantage to add value to your organization.

Several data visualization techniques can help you become more effective in your role. Here are 17 essential data visualization techniques all professionals should know, as well as tips to help you effectively present your data.

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What Is Data Visualization?

Data visualization is the process of creating graphical representations of information. This process helps the presenter communicate data in a way that’s easy for the viewer to interpret and draw conclusions.

There are many different techniques and tools you can leverage to visualize data, so you want to know which ones to use and when. Here are some of the most important data visualization techniques all professionals should know.

Data Visualization Techniques

The type of data visualization technique you leverage will vary based on the type of data you’re working with, in addition to the story you’re telling with your data .

Here are some important data visualization techniques to know:

• Gantt Chart
• Box and Whisker Plot
• Waterfall Chart
• Scatter Plot
• Pictogram Chart
• Highlight Table
• Bullet Graph
• Choropleth Map
• Network Diagram
• Correlation Matrices

1. Pie Chart

Pie charts are one of the most common and basic data visualization techniques, used across a wide range of applications. Pie charts are ideal for illustrating proportions, or part-to-whole comparisons.

Because pie charts are relatively simple and easy to read, they’re best suited for audiences who might be unfamiliar with the information or are only interested in the key takeaways. For viewers who require a more thorough explanation of the data, pie charts fall short in their ability to display complex information.

2. Bar Chart

The classic bar chart , or bar graph, is another common and easy-to-use method of data visualization. In this type of visualization, one axis of the chart shows the categories being compared, and the other, a measured value. The length of the bar indicates how each group measures according to the value.

One drawback is that labeling and clarity can become problematic when there are too many categories included. Like pie charts, they can also be too simple for more complex data sets.

3. Histogram

Unlike bar charts, histograms illustrate the distribution of data over a continuous interval or defined period. These visualizations are helpful in identifying where values are concentrated, as well as where there are gaps or unusual values.

Histograms are especially useful for showing the frequency of a particular occurrence. For instance, if you’d like to show how many clicks your website received each day over the last week, you can use a histogram. From this visualization, you can quickly determine which days your website saw the greatest and fewest number of clicks.

4. Gantt Chart

Gantt charts are particularly common in project management, as they’re useful in illustrating a project timeline or progression of tasks. In this type of chart, tasks to be performed are listed on the vertical axis and time intervals on the horizontal axis. Horizontal bars in the body of the chart represent the duration of each activity.

Utilizing Gantt charts to display timelines can be incredibly helpful, and enable team members to keep track of every aspect of a project. Even if you’re not a project management professional, familiarizing yourself with Gantt charts can help you stay organized.

5. Heat Map

A heat map is a type of visualization used to show differences in data through variations in color. These charts use color to communicate values in a way that makes it easy for the viewer to quickly identify trends. Having a clear legend is necessary in order for a user to successfully read and interpret a heatmap.

There are many possible applications of heat maps. For example, if you want to analyze which time of day a retail store makes the most sales, you can use a heat map that shows the day of the week on the vertical axis and time of day on the horizontal axis. Then, by shading in the matrix with colors that correspond to the number of sales at each time of day, you can identify trends in the data that allow you to determine the exact times your store experiences the most sales.

6. A Box and Whisker Plot

A box and whisker plot , or box plot, provides a visual summary of data through its quartiles. First, a box is drawn from the first quartile to the third of the data set. A line within the box represents the median. “Whiskers,” or lines, are then drawn extending from the box to the minimum (lower extreme) and maximum (upper extreme). Outliers are represented by individual points that are in-line with the whiskers.

This type of chart is helpful in quickly identifying whether or not the data is symmetrical or skewed, as well as providing a visual summary of the data set that can be easily interpreted.

7. Waterfall Chart

A waterfall chart is a visual representation that illustrates how a value changes as it’s influenced by different factors, such as time. The main goal of this chart is to show the viewer how a value has grown or declined over a defined period. For example, waterfall charts are popular for showing spending or earnings over time.

8. Area Chart

An area chart , or area graph, is a variation on a basic line graph in which the area underneath the line is shaded to represent the total value of each data point. When several data series must be compared on the same graph, stacked area charts are used.

This method of data visualization is useful for showing changes in one or more quantities over time, as well as showing how each quantity combines to make up the whole. Stacked area charts are effective in showing part-to-whole comparisons.

9. Scatter Plot

Another technique commonly used to display data is a scatter plot . A scatter plot displays data for two variables as represented by points plotted against the horizontal and vertical axis. This type of data visualization is useful in illustrating the relationships that exist between variables and can be used to identify trends or correlations in data.

Scatter plots are most effective for fairly large data sets, since it’s often easier to identify trends when there are more data points present. Additionally, the closer the data points are grouped together, the stronger the correlation or trend tends to be.

10. Pictogram Chart

Pictogram charts , or pictograph charts, are particularly useful for presenting simple data in a more visual and engaging way. These charts use icons to visualize data, with each icon representing a different value or category. For example, data about time might be represented by icons of clocks or watches. Each icon can correspond to either a single unit or a set number of units (for example, each icon represents 100 units).

In addition to making the data more engaging, pictogram charts are helpful in situations where language or cultural differences might be a barrier to the audience’s understanding of the data.

11. Timeline

Timelines are the most effective way to visualize a sequence of events in chronological order. They’re typically linear, with key events outlined along the axis. Timelines are used to communicate time-related information and display historical data.

Timelines allow you to highlight the most important events that occurred, or need to occur in the future, and make it easy for the viewer to identify any patterns appearing within the selected time period. While timelines are often relatively simple linear visualizations, they can be made more visually appealing by adding images, colors, fonts, and decorative shapes.

12. Highlight Table

A highlight table is a more engaging alternative to traditional tables. By highlighting cells in the table with color, you can make it easier for viewers to quickly spot trends and patterns in the data. These visualizations are useful for comparing categorical data.

Depending on the data visualization tool you’re using, you may be able to add conditional formatting rules to the table that automatically color cells that meet specified conditions. For instance, when using a highlight table to visualize a company’s sales data, you may color cells red if the sales data is below the goal, or green if sales were above the goal. Unlike a heat map, the colors in a highlight table are discrete and represent a single meaning or value.

13. Bullet Graph

A bullet graph is a variation of a bar graph that can act as an alternative to dashboard gauges to represent performance data. The main use for a bullet graph is to inform the viewer of how a business is performing in comparison to benchmarks that are in place for key business metrics.

In a bullet graph, the darker horizontal bar in the middle of the chart represents the actual value, while the vertical line represents a comparative value, or target. If the horizontal bar passes the vertical line, the target for that metric has been surpassed. Additionally, the segmented colored sections behind the horizontal bar represent range scores, such as “poor,” “fair,” or “good.”

14. Choropleth Maps

A choropleth map uses color, shading, and other patterns to visualize numerical values across geographic regions. These visualizations use a progression of color (or shading) on a spectrum to distinguish high values from low.

Choropleth maps allow viewers to see how a variable changes from one region to the next. A potential downside to this type of visualization is that the exact numerical values aren’t easily accessible because the colors represent a range of values. Some data visualization tools, however, allow you to add interactivity to your map so the exact values are accessible.

15. Word Cloud

A word cloud , or tag cloud, is a visual representation of text data in which the size of the word is proportional to its frequency. The more often a specific word appears in a dataset, the larger it appears in the visualization. In addition to size, words often appear bolder or follow a specific color scheme depending on their frequency.

Word clouds are often used on websites and blogs to identify significant keywords and compare differences in textual data between two sources. They are also useful when analyzing qualitative datasets, such as the specific words consumers used to describe a product.

16. Network Diagram

Network diagrams are a type of data visualization that represent relationships between qualitative data points. These visualizations are composed of nodes and links, also called edges. Nodes are singular data points that are connected to other nodes through edges, which show the relationship between multiple nodes.

There are many use cases for network diagrams, including depicting social networks, highlighting the relationships between employees at an organization, or visualizing product sales across geographic regions.

17. Correlation Matrix

A correlation matrix is a table that shows correlation coefficients between variables. Each cell represents the relationship between two variables, and a color scale is used to communicate whether the variables are correlated and to what extent.

Correlation matrices are useful to summarize and find patterns in large data sets. In business, a correlation matrix might be used to analyze how different data points about a specific product might be related, such as price, advertising spend, launch date, etc.

Other Data Visualization Options

While the examples listed above are some of the most commonly used techniques, there are many other ways you can visualize data to become a more effective communicator. Some other data visualization options include:

• Bubble clouds
• Circle views
• Dendrograms
• Dot distribution maps
• Open-high-low-close charts
• Polar areas
• Radial trees
• Ring Charts
• Sankey diagram
• Span charts
• Streamgraphs
• Wedge stack graphs
• Violin plots

Tips For Creating Effective Visualizations

Creating effective data visualizations requires more than just knowing how to choose the best technique for your needs. There are several considerations you should take into account to maximize your effectiveness when it comes to presenting data.

Related : What to Keep in Mind When Creating Data Visualizations in Excel

One of the most important steps is to evaluate your audience. For example, if you’re presenting financial data to a team that works in an unrelated department, you’ll want to choose a fairly simple illustration. On the other hand, if you’re presenting financial data to a team of finance experts, it’s likely you can safely include more complex information.

Another helpful tip is to avoid unnecessary distractions. Although visual elements like animation can be a great way to add interest, they can also distract from the key points the illustration is trying to convey and hinder the viewer’s ability to quickly understand the information.

Finally, be mindful of the colors you utilize, as well as your overall design. While it’s important that your graphs or charts are visually appealing, there are more practical reasons you might choose one color palette over another. For instance, using low contrast colors can make it difficult for your audience to discern differences between data points. Using colors that are too bold, however, can make the illustration overwhelming or distracting for the viewer.

Related : Bad Data Visualization: 5 Examples of Misleading Data

Visuals to Interpret and Share Information

No matter your role or title within an organization, data visualization is a skill that’s important for all professionals. Being able to effectively present complex data through easy-to-understand visual representations is invaluable when it comes to communicating information with members both inside and outside your business.

There’s no shortage in how data visualization can be applied in the real world. Data is playing an increasingly important role in the marketplace today, and data literacy is the first step in understanding how analytics can be used in business.

Are you interested in improving your analytical skills? Learn more about Business Analytics , our eight-week online course that can help you use data to generate insights and tackle business decisions.

This post was updated on January 20, 2022. It was originally published on September 17, 2019.

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