“A leader should be a visionary and have more foresight than an employee.”

The literal meaning is that the primary duty of an executive is to look further into the future than the people executing the daily operations. Strategically, it defines the division of labor in a successful enterprise: employees manage the present reality, while the leader navigates the upcoming disruptions, trends, and crises. When a CEO becomes bogged down in micro-managing daily tasks, the company loses its strategic compass and inevitably crashes into unforeseen market shifts. Board members and investors look for this specific trait in founders, knowing that a company without a visionary at the helm is just a slowly sinking ship. Jack Ma constantly scanned the horizon for global technological shifts, pivoting Alibaba toward cloud computing and mobile payments years before his competitors realized their importance. Your value as a leader is not measured by how hard you work today, but by how clearly you see tomorrow. Step back from the operational noise and dedicate your mind to mapping the future.