Barry Rand was right on target when he warned his people that if you have a yes-man working for you, one of you is redundant. Good leadership encourages everyone s evolution. When everyone s mind is dulled or distracted, the leader must be doubly vigilant. Strategy equals execution. All great ideas and visions in the world are worthless if they can t be implemented rapidly and efficiently.
Good leaders delegate and empower others liberally, but they pay attention to details every day.
That is why even as they pay attention to details, they continually encourage people to challenge the process. They implicitly understand the sentiment of CEO-leaders like Quad Graphic s Harry Quadracchi, Oticon s Lars Kolind and the late Bill McGowan of MCI, who all independently asserted the Job of a leader is not to be the chief organizer, but the chief disorganizer. Well it s true. They re prudent, not reckless. So the moral is, don t ask.