One of a leader’s most powerful tools is the creation of a good proximate objective—one that is close enough at hand to be feasible. A proximate objective names a target that the organization can reasonably be expected to hit, even overwhelm. For example, President Kennedy’s call for the United States to place a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s is often held out as a bold push into the unknown. Along with Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, it has become almost a required reference in any of today’s “how to be a charismatic leader” manuals extolling the magical virtues of
...more
