A Leadership Lesson From Venice

Same Direction. Different Roles.

Look at the gondoliers. They are working. Their passengers are not. Yet both are moving in the same direction, toward the same destination, at the same pace. Nobody is complaining about the arrangement. It is exactly as it should be.

Organisations work the same way. Some roles generate the movement while others depend on it; some carry visible responsibility while others operate quietly in the background. Not every contribution looks the same, and not every effort is equally visible from the outside. That asymmetry isn't a problem to solve. It is how coordinated work functions.

What becomes a problem is when leaders stop noticing it. Gondoliers were once the lifeblood of Venice, moving people, goods, and commerce through a city that couldn't function without them, and even in modern times the city depends on them for tourism. What is less well known is that when their contribution was taken for granted, they stopped rowing and blocked the Grand Canal by tying gondolas side by side. Repeatedly. Until those who depended on them took notice.

Leaders who make the same mistake will find the same result. The people who generate the movement quietly disengage, and the boat stops.

When did you last show real appreciation to someone whose contribution you depend on but rarely think to acknowledge?

David R. Smith