The leader must live with two horizons in view. We need to think in the short-term and the long-term. One who thinks only in the short-term never wins strategic advantage, and one who thinks only in the long-term never gains tactical position. Our operation must be a fluid paradox of short-term and long-term focus.
Mid-level leaders find themselves vacillating between the two perspectives – they are trapped in a contradiction, struggling between the urgency of the short-term and the necessity of the long-term. Senior leaders have the nuanced capacity to hold both perspectives at the same time – they resolve the contradiction with a paradox, seeing the present through the lens of the future.
