budget constraints, debt levels, liquidity rates, employee morale,
cash flow requirements, milestones to product launch, scrape rates,
return percentages, legal and environmental compliance, top-line
sales, stock price, shareholder returns, inventory levels, market
forecasts, yield rates, competitor moves, production schedules, per-
sonal performance feedback, and the continual bombardment of
messages from a variety of different written, electronic, and tele-
phonic sources all combine to make life exciting. Similar to the
flight environment, this array of variables can be overwhelming.
The value of an effective leadership support system is its help
in reducing an overwhelming set of variables into a simpler set on
which a leader can act to stay “on course, on glide path.” The key
is to ensure that it is as simple as possible, but no simpler. Unless
the system simplifies the inputs, it merely brings an overwhelming
array of information to the executive more rapidly, and unless the
system captures the richness of the executive’s environment, it is a
superficial distortion of the real environment.
Right Achievement, Right BehaviorSustained success at goal attainment requires effectiveness in two
dimensions. The first is task achievement, and the second is interper-
sonal behavior employed while in pursuit of goals (see Figure 27.2).
LEARNING AT THESPEED OFFLIGHT 303CourseGlide SlopeFigure 27.1 Instrument Landing System