Wants matter in leadership. When someone with responsibility wants something, things move.

Something happens. I make a read of it, and then I want something. Held quite lightly at first. Then I make another read: something is in the way. And what I want hardens into what has to happen. By someone else, or by me. Reasons gather around it. Why this matters, what follows if it does not.

Then I take it to others, as a requirement with a case attached. What they meet is the requirement, the case, and some anxiety. Not what I wanted. And there is not much room left for what they want, or for another way of getting there.

Why I do not see what I want

When I go looking for what I want, what I meet first is everything I have added around it. What I will get if it happens. What will follow if it does not.

And once those additions are set down, what is left looks entirely reasonable. Obviously I want whatweadd to be successful. I want to make enough money to provide for my family and buy windsurfing gear. There is nothing there to argue with, which is why I do not examine it.

That is where I work. Separating the want from what has come with it, and finding what it is genuinely for.

So that what reaches others is the want, and not the case around it.