Daryl Mintz – Visionary leadership is the ability to drive teams’ thinking by communicating an inspirational, motivating, and stimulating future they will want and choose to buy into.
In today’s uncertain business environment, visionary leaders are essential to guiding their employees and helping them see how their work fits into the bigger picture. This is where their strong communication skills come into play.
The Vision
As Robin Hood’s CFAO, Daryl Mintz oversees the day-to-day strategic and managerial leadership of the critical infrastructure functions of Finance, Human Capital, Legal, Information Technology, and Operations/Facilities.
He has an impressive resume, having spent over a quarter century at Sesame Workshop, most recently as its VP and CFO. A Rutgers University grad, Daryl is a seasoned pro who has made his mark as an accountant, and an executive with a keen eye for the financial lingo.
The Mission
The mission of Daryl Mintz is simple: to ensure that Sesame Workshop’s resources are properly allocated to support the organization’s long-term strategic goals.
He oversees all of the Workshop’s financial functions including accounting, reporting, treasury, and cash management and he evaluates and monitors the financial health of Sesame Workshop’s business activities in the United States and around the world.
He is also the treasurer of Sesame Workshop’s Joan Ganz Cooney Center for Educational Media and Research and a director of Sesame Workshop India Initiatives, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sesame Workshop in India.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and is a licensed CPA in New Jersey. He currently lives in Morristown, NJ with his wife and daughter. They enjoy traveling and camping.
The Values
Visionary leaders communicate clear personal and organizational values that align team members with the company’s mission and goals. This helps people understand where they are going and how they can be involved along the way.
They are able to inspire others and motivate them to do their best work. They also appreciate the efforts of their teams and show they value them by letting them know that their contributions are important to the organization.
Visionary leaders believe in audacity, and they’re comfortable taking risks to make their vision a reality. They are able to push through setbacks, and their optimism keeps them positive.
The Culture
A visionary leader understands the need for creativity and innovation. They know that the status quo will soon be left behind and encourage their teams to explore creative options, test new ideas, and step out of the box.
This is especially important in the current economic climate. Employees are looking for meaningful and challenging work.
They’re also seeking a sense of purpose and belonging to an organization. A leader can help them find that by making their vision personal, enabling them to feel like they’re part of the journey toward that future goal.
As a result, a visionary leader can provide an environment that’s resilient to adversity. They can also help their team adapt to change by demonstrating empathy and compassion for the emotions and experiences of their employees.
The People
In the perspective of visionary leadership, strategy emerges from the personal ideas of a visionary leader (Ackoff, 1993; Bailey & Johnson, 2001; Drucker, 1970; Jaques & Clement, 1991). The strategic goal is seen as intuitive; it ‘feels right’.
This perspective is important to design processes that require agents to cooperate on complex and ambiguous tasks. It provides energy, inspiration, and clarity for agents to work together; it generates ‘belief’ and gives a shared framework of how to make sense of ambiguity.
However, the visionary perspective is also weak; it can produce a ‘personal cult’ and can invoke groupthink. Furthermore, it may be difficult to challenge the core assumptions of a strategy that emerges from the visionary story. This can lead to robustness problems.
