Future

A friend and I were talking. We spoke about organizations and leadership. We mentioned direction and nurturing people to push together in the same direction for the good of the organization. Roles played by some, titles fluffed without much substance, and decisions made in concert by boards of directors and senior management teams. All for what?

That was what we continuously asked ourselves. What were they doing, and why? Each saw a reason, but it wasn’t shared with others. Teams of people feeling differently about the same data yet coming to different conclusions.

We discussed this further and finally landed on this: a board of directors’ job is to discern the direction of the organization and set into place decisions and policies that would bring about the future that direction would build. Direction, steering, finding a route or way to the future. That was the role of the board of directors.

The future. What it was. How it was defined. Why it was logical and a result of the present. Future. Coming into being. Being possible from what we had already done, what we were doing now, and what those actions required of us to make sense in the future.

That’s leadership. In a nutshell. Identifying a future that makes sense, defining it and determining how to make it happen successfully. Marshalling resources to make the future happen. Helping others understand all of this. Supporting their efforts to make it happen. Collegiality and teamwork. Thinking and doing. Logically. Openly communicating this.

What is leadership? Determining a workable definition of the future and then making it happen. A lot of people are involved. But the logic is central. Communicating openly leads to broader understanding. In turn, that leads to group work and performing actions that combine to build the future. Together. Not one person. A group of people working together for the same ends.

How often this is misunderstood. Imagined but not done. How many organizations are thus lost? Far too many. A huge waste of good people and resources.

July 21, 2025