Maligne Lake, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

Fear #2: If I’m specific, people will think I’m a tyrant.

Likeability is now understood as an important trait in leadership, so it’s easy to feel demanding when we lay out specifications.

But specificity doesn’t appear overly demanding when its goal is clear and logical. Is the marketing purpose sensible and well-articulated? Is the mechanismlogical? Are any additional mandatoriesclear and reasonable, not arbitrary or onerous? If so, specificity is the opposite of demanding: it can liberate the team to be creative in all the right places throughout the project. Collaborators and even direct reports will work more confidently; good teammates will know they are performing well and hitting targets.

Did the Alps excite him or did they just look like a vast wall between him and safety? Did he get close to any of the monumental non-Arab cities of Europe, such as Vienna or Paris? Did their stucco or baroque buildings look beautiful to him, or excessive? Did the visual experience calm him, as horizons often do for travellers, or did it make him realise that he had miles to go before he slept?