A Gap

"He didn't have to manage. He just told people what to do."

I paused for several seconds, waiting to see if he was going to elaborate, then realized that he believed what he'd just said.

I was talking to a world-renowned historian and biographer about a leader that he'd studied for years. By the time I interviewed this author, large amounts of material about how the leader's subordinates had played various bureaucratic games to work around their boss, manipulate his directions, and anticipate his opinions had crossed my desk.

And now this unquestionably intelligent man was telling me that didn't happen. I could tell that this was not a case in which he had considered but discounted the positions of other historians and, indeed, associates of the leader. This was a case in which he had not considered the possibility at all.

It was, with all due respect, one of the stupidest comments I've ever heard. It has stayed with me for years. Looking back, I wonder, "What major component of a leader's performance have I failed to notice?"