There’s a famous story about an encounter President John F. Kennedy had with a NASA employee during a 1962 visit to the NASA space center.
During the visit, the president noticed a man carrying a broom. Kennedy decided to introduce himself to the employee and asked what his job was. The janitor, responded, “Well, Mr. President, I’m helping to put a man on the moon.”
The leadership at NASA successfully accomplished something that only great leadership does. The kind of leadership that can succeed to put a man on the moon must first achieve a more fundamental feat –create an empowering sense of a common higher purpose in every employee, from the “least to the greatest.” To pull such an extraordinary feat as put man on the moon, you need all hands on deck and all people doing their best work.
Only a few leaders and leadership teams succeed to create this kind of exceptional sense of common purpose within their teams. Steve Jobs at Apple managed to do that and Apple has been able to do some amazing things because of that.
Any company that wants to accomplish great feats and do great work needs to think about creating an empowering sense of a common higher purpose.
Great leadership creates an exceptional sense of a common higher purpose in everyone
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