Chasing Venus: When the World Came Together to Measure the Heavens

In 1716, sixty-year old Sir Edmund Halley called on astronomers all over the world to leave their cozy observatories, travel to the edges of the known world, set up their telescopes, and turn their eyes toward the sunrise on the morning of June 6th, 1761, when the first Transit of Venus of the scientific age would march across the face of the sun.

In the eighteenth century, the solar system had a shape but not a size.

Captain Cook's 1792 Drawing

By timing the entrance and the exit of Venus across the sun from latitudes all over the world, Halley explained, astronomers could roughly calculate the distance between the Earth and the Sun — a “celestial yardstick” for measuring the universe, as Andrea Wulf calls it in her excellent book Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens.

1882 Film of Venus transit

 It was the first worldwide scientific collaboration of its kind, a mathematical olympiad six hours in duration, with years of planning and seconds that counted.

Today, more than 250 years after this grand experiment that required astronomers all over the world to gather together and look to the sky at the exact same moment, we will experience the last transit of our lifetime (unless modern medicine makes us survive to December 2117, when the next one will take place).

7 Qualities of Leadership

Remember, when you are looking for a good leader don't be too quick to count yourself out of the running. The leader you are looking for may be you.

The seven qualities you need to be a leader or perhaps the qualities you look for and expect, in others.

Let's say you need to find a candidate who can not only lead and transform your organisation but also motivate, drive and carry all before them.

You have to be;

1. Smart and insightful when dealing with complex problems (cognitive complexity)
2. Mature and emotionally stable. Able to deal with ambiguity and complexity
3. Strong willed and possess self-awareness and self-management skills
4. Strong people person with great interpersonal awareness and interpersonal acumen
5. Able to build flexible and robust solutions
6. Able to instill confidence in others
7. Continually learning, growing and looking for ways to improve one's self, others and the organisation.

Leaders can follow others. Practice supporting and leading from behind, at a distance or remotely. Trust people to do their job and to know better.

Leaders treat change as an opportunity, an adventure and an experiment to carry you to the next level.

Change is something to embrace, to learn from, rather than something to fear, or fight against and conquer.

Allow your people the courage to try and fail. Be there to gather them up, put them back together and then let them try again but this time with more guidance.