that have been charted before. Compasses are helpful when
you are not sure where you are and can get only a general sense
of direction.” Adaptive capacity allows today’s leaders to act,
and then to evaluate the results of their actions, instead of rely-
ing on the traditional decision-making model, which calls for
collecting and analyzing the data, then acting. Today’s leaders
know that speed is of the essence, and that they must often act
before all the data are in. They must assess the results of their
actions, correct their course, and quickly act again.
Adaptive capacity is made up of many things, including re-
silience or what psychologists call “hardiness.” People who are
able to act quickly and appropriately are all “first-class no-
ticers,” as novelist Saul Bellow describes one of his characters.
Adaptive capacity is a kind of creativity. And adaptive capacity
also encompasses the ability to identify and seize opportunities.
As I have watched hundreds of people become leaders over the
years, I have been struck again and again by how effectively
some people are able to recruit the mentors they need. I realize
that one of my own gifts as a younger man was the ability to
find and somehow woo great teachers. This ability is more
complex and more important than mere networking. It is noth-
ing less than the ability to spot the handful of people who can
make all the difference in your life and to get them on your
side. I have seen the process from the mentor’s side over the
last few decades, and I am always struck by the art with which
some talented younger people draw me into their lives, make
me care about them, and make me want to help them in any
way I can. That ability is essential to becoming a leader. And it
is a success strategy that other primates seem to adopt as well as
people. In studying male baboons, Stanford University neuro-
scientist Robert Sapolsky found that the difference betweenIntroduction to the Revised Edition, 2003xxvii0465014088_fm.qxd:0738208175_fm.qxd 12/2/08 2:52 PM Page xxvii