Once upon a time, there were three kings: Harold the Great, Frederick the Pensive and William the Cautious. One winter, they met at the annual king conference in San Juan.
They arrived, tired from their trip. They went to their respective rooms at the Camelot 8 Resort to get settled and rest for a bit before attending what promised to be an enjoyable and profitable conference. The first session dealt with the ongoing theory of the “Dragon Conspiracy and its Potential Effect on Global Warming.” It was to be followed by the keynote speaker who had just finished publishing his research on harem management in a landmark book, “Built to Lust.”
Because of the long trip, each king first retired to his room to freshen up and address any pressing needs back home. As a result, each king missed the first session.
When King Frederick asked King Harold, “Why did you miss the meeting?” the King explained that he had been too tired to attend. He had lain down to rest and fallen into a deep sleep. While asleep, however, he had experienced a dream about a gathering of the wisest and most innovative men in his kingdom who might help solve the problem of keeping dragons from eating his kingdom’s crops, roasting his cattle, and putting a real dent in the tourist trade. Upon waking, he called a messenger to go back to his kingdom and ask his vizier to search for those knights with the best judgment of character and wisdom. These knights would then identify how to deal with this difficult situation. “I anticipate we will soon have a plan in place to pre-empt this threat that hurts my subjects, bar-b-ques our cattle and drives off the tourists. In fact, it may even all be settled by the time I get back.”
King William then asked King Frederick why he missed the meeting, to which he replied, “I too have a dragon problem and was on the phone arranging for a meeting to create a committee that would develop a white paper that would enable us to set up a time to discuss the problem when I get back.”
The two then asked King William how he spent his time, to which he replied, “I had to evaluate some requests for munitions, review the expense accounts of our last crusade, check with our stable manager to ensure our quality standards were under control, sit in on two conference calls with our largest farm cooperatives, and then get a checklist of the invitees to the upcoming harvest festival and jousting recognition celebration. Then, I had to ensure we had the scribes record all of that and send it to my best knights and advisors to recheck. You know, we also have a dragon problem, but we never seem to get around to solving it.”
Having taken care of their affairs, the three kings then went on to the next session, “Boiling Oil from the Turrets: Effective Defense or Environmental Hazard?”
Upon their return to their kingdoms, King Frederick and King William were surprised to find their kingdoms still under a dragon advisory and half their land already char-broiled. King Herald was very pleased but not surprised to find that, rather than removing the dragons, his delegated knights had taken the initiative to develop a dragon alliance. In return for providing fire power for the kingdom’s power plant, the dragons received a share of the surplus crop production, which, with the by-product of dragon fertilizer, increased its production by 85%. This allowed increased exports and the government subsidy of a new joisting arena with improved corporate box seating. This bold move increased tourist levels and pacified the team’s owner who had threatened to move the team to a new kingdom.
The Moral? True leaders make dreams a priority…and reap greater rewards when they allow others to share the thrill of developing ways to fulfill those dreams. Obsessive meetings and micromanaging only allow the major problems to “drag-on.”