Slow leadership

This article is part of the Contemporary leadership series

Recently I spent 23 days in the company of four other middle-aged men on a 38-foot yacht crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Since returning, people have been asking me what I learned along the way. It is interesting – and a relatively recent phenomenon – that you are expected to learn something in any unusual experience. The experience in itself is not enough, you have to actively have learned something from it. As one of my crew mates (a CEO as it turns out) observed: “Twenty odd days on a boat in the middle of nothingness and I still haven’t figured out the meaning of life.”

Stuart Crainer is former editor of the award-winning magazine Business Strategy Review and co-founder of the Thinkers50. According to Personnel Today he is one of the most influential people in British people management. His book credits include The Management Century and a biography of the management guru Tom Peters. His work with Des Dearlove in business thought leadership led Management Today to describe them as “market makers par excellence.” Stuart is an adjunct professor at IE Business School.