Prepare emotionally. Solitude routinely yields insights a leader does not expect, which is one of the principal reasons for seeking it. Even when a leader is thinking about some issue involving a subordinate or the organization as a whole, however, those insights are often about the leader himself: the realization that his own actions contributed to an employee’s mistake, or that he has been focused only on his own problems, or that he has neglected some area of responsibility. Solitude brings one closer to the truth, and sometimes the truth is discomfiting. For a leader who is already humble,
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