We find ourselves increasingly pushed to go fast through life. We want immediate results and constant recognition. In companies, in politics, in education, and even in our own personal lives, we think that a good leader is someone who makes everything happen sooner.
We find ourselves increasingly pushed to go fast through life. We want immediate results and constant recognition. In companies, in politics, in education, and even in our own personal lives, we think that a good leader is someone who makes everything happen sooner.
However, every time I pass by the Sagrada Familia and think of Gaudí, I see something different. The Sagrada Familia teaches that there are projects that cannot be built in a hurry. It reminds us that some visions are too big to fit into an annual agenda.
Gaudí knew he would not see the basilica finished
Even so, he worked on it with absolute dedication. It is said that a society becomes great when someone plants trees under whose shade they know they will never sit. The Sagrada Familia expresses that same idea, but sculpted in stone. It is the act of building with a future in mind that you will not be able to control or fully enjoy.
This is where a leader's stature is measured. The mediocre leader needs to feel indispensable, wants everything to pass through their hands and for their presence to be noticed in every decision. They fear that their absence will paralyze the project because they confuse control with value. In contrast, the great leader creates a vision so clear and principles so recognizable that others can continue the work without betraying it. Father Theodore Hesburgh used to say that this is the essence of leadership: having a vision so clear that no one can blow an "uncertain trumpet."
If the Sagrada Familia has progressed, it is because different generations have known how to put themselves at the service of a vision that preceded them. Architects, artisans, sculptors, engineers, donors, citizens, and visitors have been part of a work that belongs to everyone because it was born from a sufficiently grand vision. In the end, the highest form of influence is to get others to continue building something that deserves to outlive us.
That is why Barcelona has learned to look at the cranes surrounding the Temple as part of a promise. And every important promise demands patience. The patience of those who understand that what is worthwhile is built stone by stone.
Every time I walk past and look up, I see it more clearly. To lead is to train people capable of improving what you started. It is to build a work that does not need you to stay alive. A good leader understands that their greatest legacy is to become dispensable so that the direction is eternal.