Five simultaneous conversations are essential to the art and discipline of leadership…

1. The first courageous conversation is the conversation with the unknown future – what lies over the horizon…”
2. The second conversation is the courageous conversation you’re not having with a present customer, a patient, a vendor, who all represent the future as it’s lapping up against the side of your organization….”
3. The third conversation is the courageous conversation you’re not having between different divisions of the organization…”
4. The fourth courageous conversation is the conversation you’re not having in your work group, among your colleagues—people you see every day, or people you e-mail or talk to on your mobile every day…”
5. The fifth courageous conversation—the one on which I believe all others are predicated—is the courageous conversation you’re not having with that tricky moveable frontier called yourself.

~David Whyte