The managers of tomorrow are people who men and women are happy to follow. People who put their faith in a sense of meaningfulness and joie de vivre rather than in frustration and stress. People who fulfill a social purpose through their actions. Becoming a manager who others will gladly follow is impossible without a strong, well-balanced personality with an attitude of lifelong learning because a good manager continues to learn throughout his or her lifetime. Such people learn to present their own opinions, to remain steadfast, to leave familiar paths, to allow uncomfortable questions, and to be good losers. 

Leadership in the transparent world is first and foremost relationship management: dealing with one another on a basis of trust, a constant flow of mutual influence. I call it the “we principle of ­management” which places the person’s own personality at the focus of good management performance because, if we want to be good leaders for others, we must begin with ourselves. Our ­personality determines how we respond to our encounters with others. But it also affects the way others respond to their encounters with us. Good self-guidance means knowing your goals and values, continuously working to improve yourself and to learn more; opening up to others, but also maintaining a discrete personality.  

We live in a world of relationships in which we constantly influence others and are influenced, whether we like it or not. The factors affecting us are diverse, and some of them are obstinate. The media pick up rumors and develop them into what seem to be facts. Images from our childhood experiences accompany us throughout our entire lives. Formulas for success promise “fast” help in all of life’s circumstances, but generally remain nothing more than promises. If our personalities are to remain intact despite these omnipresent influencing factors, we do best to behave like divers. The surface is dominated by curling to pounding waves, underwater currents are slight to raging – but divers would never attempt to control these natural forces. Instead, they learn everything possible about the conditions and adapt their own behavior so that they save their strength as they deal with the forces. 

In the same way, it is recommendable in our world of relationships to recognize, to observe the wave patterns and the currents of influence, to accept for the moment the dominant forces so that they can be exploited by skillful actions and possibly changed to work as we want them to.