Chapter 7

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Your Big Picture on the Back of an Envelope

Earlier, I made the point that half the Job at the Top is about thinking. And I hinted that it is seldom done well, or at least it’s not done as well as it should be, because thinking about the business in a big-picture way seems hard. Since there are other things to distract our attention, we tend to focus on the easier tasks that are seen by others as contributing more.

The truth? Thinking, as a general practice, isn’t hard. It’s joyous. It just becomes hard when we have no guidelines or framework to follow, no familiar paths we trust. In contrast, mental wandering isn’t fulfilling. It feels ...

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