Over the decades, visionary leadership has been considered as the core for successful leadership. On this note, scholars have argued that visionary leadership is generally well-received by followers, overlooking the possibility that visionary leadership can be a demand for followers. Drawing on the transactional theory of stress, I challenge this view and propose a more balanced theoretical model that frames visionary leadership as a unique job demand, which invokes the cognitive appraisal process within followers. Further, I argue that this cognitive appraisal process is influenced by a follower’s construal level. That is, followers high in construal level (i.e., an abstract mindset) are more likely to evaluate visionary leadership as a challenge, which, in turn, leads to enhanced proactivity and adaptivity by high construal followers. In contrast, those low in construal level (i.e., a concrete mindset) are more likely to appraise the same visionary leadership as a hindrance. In turn, hindrance appraisals of visionary leadership would lead to enhanced withdrawal behavior by these followers. I test the hypothesized theoretical model across one field study and one experimental study. For study 1, I use field data with a sample of followers nested within leaders in a work organization in South Korea. In order to complement Study 1 and enhance both internal and external validity, I conduct an experimental study (Study 2) using a sample from the United States through Prolific Academia.