Leadership Quote by Arnold H. Glasow

Leadership, in Glasow's framing, isn't the swagger of the crisis room; it's the quiet discipline of noticing what's about to break while everyone else is still congratulating themselves. The line is a rebuke to a very modern corporate habit: confusing urgency with importance, and mistaking firefighting for competence. By making "test" the operative word, he implies leadership is measurable not by charisma or titles but by outcomes that often look boring from the outside: fewer surprises, fewer escalations, fewer late-night heroics.

The subtext is almost accusatory. If a problem becomes an emergency, someone missed signals, minimized risk, or chose short-term comfort over early friction. The quote also flatters the unglamorous skill set: pattern recognition, candor, and a tolerance for being unpopular early. Spotting trouble in advance usually means asking annoying questions, challenging optimistic narratives, and investing time and money before the pain is obvious. That's the kind of "leadership" that can feel like pessimism until the alternative arrives.

Context matters here: a businessman talking to business culture, where incentives often reward visible action over preventive care. Emergencies create stories, promotions, and adrenaline; prevention creates silence, which is harder to monetize as reputation. Glasow's intent is to reprice what organizations value. The best leaders, he suggests, don't star in the emergency. They delete it from the calendar.