‘You don’t have to be sick to get better’. This pithy quotation from Eric Berne, founder of Transactional Analysis, is central to ‘Einstein and the Art of Sailing’.

This reader and workbook is not intended to provide ready-made answers, but has been written from the standpoint that people develop, and are themselves responsible for the direction and the manner in which they develop. The book examines leadership as a daily quest for the balance between the (im)possibilities of the leader himself and those of the system that he leads. Excellent leaders use two sources of power: their own power and the power of the system. This is what the authors call the art of sailing. Just as the sailor keeps a boat on course, the leader uses his personal knowledge, skills and competence to steer the organisation through difficult times.

Role
Central to the book is the thinking concerning the concept of ‘Role’. A role is a set of ideas, based on which people organise their behaviour in relation to a specific situation. A role is always in development and produces tensions since conflicting needs may underlie it. A role is not given to you; instead, you have to acquire it, develop it and make it your own. This process of making the role your own and continuously developing the same is the result of dynamic, interactive communication between the personal experiences, emotions, values and ideas (person) and what the social system in which you function (explicitly and implicitly) expects from you (system). These dynamics and the constant communication between the person-role-system, and the significance of the same for the functioning of leaders in organisations forms the basis for ‘Einstein and the Art of Sailing’.

Autonomy
Organisations are ready to change around autonomous leaders. Stress, work pressure, apathy, loss of commitment, attachment, and demotivation are often lurking, as well as the avoidance of risks, lack of belief in changes, unwillingness to bear responsibility and feeling entrapped by the system. It is precisely the feeling of being able to control oneself, being able to make choices and to have the scope of control, are important for the professional self-esteem of each leader. Providing help and support to be able to work and live autonomously is the most important fascination in the work of the authors. Autonomy has everything to do with having a clear view of the current situation in the organisation, in the belief that there will always be several directions for solutions to a problem, with authentic conduct.