Leading Leaders

CHAPTER 5

TASK NO. 1: DIRECTION

Negotiating the Vision

The real leader has no need to direct—he is content to point the way.

—HENRY MILLER¹

ORGANIZATIONS ARE NOT composed of robots controlled from a command center. Organizations consist of individuals, each with separate wills and sets of interests. If all those individuals were to exercise their own wills and pursue their interests independently and without regard to others, the organization would not likely achieve the goals for which it was established in the first place. Indeed, chaos would almost certainly result. For those wills and interests to be harnessed for the benefit of the group or organization, the organization needs a sense of direction—a sense of direction that its members have ...