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
I’ve been working in HR field at companies for 27 years, 24 out of these as HR manager. I gained experience in companies of all types and sizes, from large American multinationals to large Hungarian companies, from FMCG to agriculture and the IT Telco sector.
Organization Development Consultant, Leadership Expert, Facilitator and Business Simulations Trainer. Partner and Consultant at Flow Group in Central Asia. Professionally helps people and organizations to reinvent and transform through changes to build lasting impact.
Co-Founder of FLOW Group International, I combine a passion for future trends and innovative approaches to life improvement, with expertise in People, Organizations and Culture Development.
Ian’s talent is translating complexity into simplicity. This applies especially well in his chosen areas of M&A, Leadership, Executive Coaching, Executive Team Alignment, Change Management & Strategy which he performs all over the world.
I am a qualified economist and have an MBA degree. After 7 years in HR consulting I spent 4 years in senior management positions working for ICT companies. I returned to consulting in the spring of 2005 as an associate managing director of Creanova; I work as a partner and senior consultant/trainer of the Flow Group.
Starting out at the University of Economics and most of all with the priceless experience AIESEC provided to me in as a student, I can now look back on a multifarious, colorful and successful career of 20 years.
Economist by education, Organization Development consultant by profession, one of the founding partners of Flow. I had my share of middle and top-level management exercise in multinational environment at the early years of my professional career. During the 35 years gained experience in the airline and courier industries, built a few successful consulting organizations, steered a school and a technology start-up. Experienced in leadership on the practical and the development sides as well. Recently I’ve enjoyed working in agile leadership and Organizational Network Analysis.
I am an organization development consultant, a senior trainer, a founding member and the managing partner of the Flow Group. I have been into organization development for 15 years and have 20 years of experience with running training courses.
Andrea Frenyo
