What does it take?

Abstract

Leaders today must be able to operate in a multitude of overlapping worlds: racial, cultural, political, geographical, religious, and social. It is no longer possible to succeed by concentrating on one of these worlds and ignoring the rest. Tom Cummings talks about needing “the abi1ity to cross wor1ds.” He believes that there are various stages for a leader: “The first is expressed as ‘I 1ive in a wor1d,that’s it. It’s the on1y one for me and I’m doing we11 in it.’ The second is,‘There is my wor1d, but I can a1so see 1ots of other wor1ds and compare them to mine. But I am c1ear that I prefer to stick to mine.’ The next one, ‘Sometimes I venture into other wor1ds, and I enjoy it, but I sti11 a1ways revert,’ sometimes moves on to ‘I operate in 1ots of wor1ds but I can’t yet figure out how to connect them.’ And then, if you go the who1e way, ‘I 1ive in mu1tip1e wor1ds, and have the capacity to integrate them a11.’” Across organizations and in society we need many, many more leaders who get to Tom’s ultimate stage.