Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

"Visibility on the ground is bad, and the roadmap--well, that can't be trusted either."

One of the major strengths that Andy Grove had was to be able to move outside his personal involvement in Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), and look at everything from an objective perspective. That's why he was able to let go of his instincts, since so many times they can be wrong; not only for him but for anybody.

Many times in business you don't see the cliff until you've already started to plunge off it. Grove's greatest weapon against it was to view the business like a disinterested observor. That's true objectivity.

Grove learned and trained himself to look at himself from the view of another person. He didn't fall in love with anything in the business as far as operations go, and he was willing to do what he needed to adapt to the changing circumstances.

Possibly the greatest attribute of business leadership and management is the ability to step outside yourself and view not only the business, but what you're doing individually within it, from the view of a stranger looking in. Not only are we able to see things more clearly, but we're able to see them wider and longer than our competitors.

The reason Grove was able to see ahead better than most was this very powerful concept that he practiced daily. It's something all business leaders need to learn to practice. It's definitely a competitive advantage.