The group had been working for ninety minutes. They were working in a simulation to complete a complex task. Once the task sequence and its steps were decided and practiced, the test was to complete the entire sequence in a twenty minute time frame.

I stopped the simulation to ask a simple question. “Which of you has become the leader?” There had been no formal selection, but the group immediately looked at Sam.

“What is it about Sam, that has made him the leader?” I continued.

The team members began to exchange glances, wondering if they were all thinking the same thing. “Well, Sam seemed to know how to organize this thing together,” Marvin volunteered.

“How did he do that? You have not worked together as a team before.”

There was a brief moment, then Kyle piped up. “Sam pulled us all together, asking questions about what each of us thought. Within three minutes, he had formulated a plan, assigned some individual responsibilities and we started working.”

So I am thinking to myself. Sam was chosen as the leader because he had understood the complexity of the situation better (at least faster) than the others.

At that moment, Emma stood up. She had been sitting on the sidelines, in fact, I wondered if she had been paying attention.

“I think we can complete this task in five minutes, instead of twenty,” she said.

All eyes turned. In an instant, a new leader emerged. -TF