I also believe it has some applicability to organizations. In any organization, we typically know who the “leaders are because they are the ones with the titles – the principals as Robertson Davies would say. However, there are others in the organization – “characters that are essential to the action – whose absence would be extremely obvious. They are the ones who don’t just get work done. They are so tuned into the organization and how things work that they can really make things happen.

For example, I recently facilitated an off site leadership team meeting. We had an extremely successful session that would not have been nearly as productive if the person assigned to handling all of the logistics and meeting arrangements with the hotel were not there. Not only did Mary have things running like clockwork, she brought the whole event in under budget!

So take a minute to think about the people who play those fifth business roles in your organization and send me their story.