When you’re standing on second base and a fly ball is hit, you don’t watch the ball.  You watch the third base coach.  He will tell you how far to go, how fast to go and whether to stop at third or keep going.   This seems to be one of the most difficult lessons to teach.  There’s something magical about watching the ball (ask any beginning golfer.)

But watching the ball costs you at least a half step (maybe more) in the race to third or home.  That’s often the difference between making it in safe and being called out.

It’s that way in business.  The CEO is the coach.  If you keep your eyes on the CEO and follow his / her direction (having confidence that he or she is watching the ball and knows when you should and should not go) then you’ll be successful.  When we fail is when we cease putting our trust in the leader and start doing things for ourselves.

At that point everyone is pulling on whatever rope they want in whatever direction they want, in place of all pulling on the same rope in the same direction at the same time.  There’s great power in keeping your eye on the leader and overcoming the human nature that drives us to go it alone.