The November 16, 1998 issue of the Wall Street Journal included a special forty-two page section entitled "Technology — Thinking About Tomorrow" which included sixteen articles.  Some examples of the article titles:  "Bigger and Smaller" (about the size of personal computers), "Dumb Machines, Smart Networks" (about software moving from  computers to the Internet), "A Different Course" (about how for many people, college will no longer be a specific place or specific time), and "Corporate Seers."

"Corporate Seers” is subtitled, "Who knows better what the future holds than those who make a living thinking about it?"  One of the six seers is Thornton May, corporate futurist at Cambridge Technology Partners.  Thornton claims, "Geography is dead.  People will not spend time commuting.  By the year 2008, technology will have trivialized the concept of 'place.' "

Geography dead?  I think not.

Three days after that special section of the WSJ, it published an article, "More Toasts, Less Sleep:  The Globe Trotting CEO."  This long article describes a "new generation of CEOs who can't afford to stay home much," who must "oversee global operations and cope with growing economic turmoil abroad."  The CEO of Honeywell, who flies over 200,000 miles a year and who in the past five years has visited almost all of the ninety-five countries in which Honeywell operates says, "I learn a hell of a lot more doing this than sitting in my office reading historical information."

American companies now have over eight thousand corporate jets.  Wal-Mart, for example, has eighteen which take off every week from their Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters.  Add to that the hundreds of thousands of sales people, middle and upper managers who crowd the commercial airlines every day.

These men and women recognize the real importance of face-to-face contact with customers, suppliers, governmental officials, fellow employees and owners.

The need for the personal interaction exists in all organizations, large and small, business, education, health care, other not-for-profits and governmental units.

The face-to-face, personal contacts do not mean one way conversations or blurred images of officials zipping through employee spaces with or without "pressing the flesh."  Managers might as well use the telephone, e-mail, fax or snail mail.

True leaders who serve and lead, lead and serve, devote a significant portion of their valuable time to listening as well as talking, inviting problem identification and good ideas instead of just announcing solutions.  They clarify vision, mission, values, goals, strategies, objectives and tactics.  With integrity, courage, compassion and justice, these leaders balance the needs of all stakeholders with their personal touch.