Managing Leadership^®

This metaphor is one of many used to suggest the taking of bold action at the risk of incalculable danger. It points to those – often, “leaders” – who putatively live in the fast lane, think large thoughts, dare great deeds. Even in defeat, such larger-than-life personages are wondrous, mythic, object lessons in greatness.

But, have you ever been sailing? It’s true, sailing close to the wind is one of many things a sailor does to optimize the boat’s forward motion. It can be exhilarating, too, in a strong, steady wind, as the leeward gunwales dip toward the water, threatening to tip you into the sea.

It’s worth noting, though, that this impression of great speed is really only a matter of a few miles an hour. Just turn your attention from the wind rushing through your hair and the waves roaring by just inches away, toward even the most humble motor vessel nearby; it likely will be passing you with ease, its occupants regarding your heroic poses with bemusement.

And if your adventurousness brings you too close into the wind, what calamity will consume your arrogant audacity? What great punishment will overwhelm your indomitable spirit?

Well, nothing much more impressive than your forward speed, in fact, really was.

When you sail too close to the wind, your ship doesn’t capsize dramatically, with snapping masts and screaming crew ejected into the roiling shark-infested waters. What happens is the wind, which had been optimally filling and shaping your sails, can no longer do so.

Where in one moment they were taut with energy, in the next they ripple listlessly, empty of wind which is coming in too strait-on to fill them. They are now little more than a drag – you not only have lost the impetus for forward motion, but your sails are also acting as an air brake to further slow you down.

That, really, is it: your were moving briskly along, and suddenly you are becalmed.

This is not a catastrophe reflecting the majestic scope of your enterprise. It’s an embarrassment, measuring the emptiness of your previous posturing.

Remember that while you, red-faced and desperately attempting to ignore the yet-more-bemused attention directed your way by other sailors and boaters, clumsily struggle with an ungainly dead weight which stubbornly resists your efforts to turn its sails back on to the wind.

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Today’s tips: Speaking of looking silly, you may want to see this short piece from the fake news source, The Onion, about what the researchers really think about those poor control groups.

And speaking of getting under way, striking poses, and then wondering why you are suddenly becalmed again, please see Wally Bock on how to avoid a thoughtless addiction, as destructive as any, to change.

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