In sailing, plotting your path isn’t as simple as pointing straight ahead. You have to understand that there is a fundamental difference between the three types of courses in navigation: True Course, Magnetic Course, and Compass Course. Each one represents a slightly different direction, and mastering their interplay is an essential part to reaching your destination.
This navigation challenge offers a powerful metaphor for leadership:
- True Course is the ideal, straight-line path over the Earth’s surface—the clear vision or ultimate goal you set for your team or organization. It’s where you want to go, your true north star.
- Magnetic Course adjusts the True Course for the Earth’s magnetic variation—the natural shifts and influences in your environment that pull you off your ideal path. In leadership, this is the external reality: market dynamics, competition, and changing customer needs.
- Compass Course is what your compass actually shows, affected by local magnetic deviation—errors caused by your own vessel’s metal structure or electronics. For leaders, this represents internal biases, assumptions, or organizational blind spots that can distort perception and decision-making.
Just as sailors must constantly remember where they are heading, know where they are exactly, and correct their heading, leaders must create and clearly communciate their true goals, must use the right tools to understand their external realities, and be aware of their internal perceptions.
Are you adjusting your course effectively today?
Márton Svékus
