Peter Drucker famously said, “Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and under-performance.” This is what will result when people do what comes naturally to them. It is thus the purpose of a manager to induce, convince, cajole, bribe, influence, nudge, pressure, and otherwise persuade the members of their organization to act otherwise.

Yes, the job is also about strategy, communication, inspiration, accountability, and tough decisions, but all those are means the same end: modifying people’s behavior so they collectively achieve something more. Some of these are large scale behaviors, but mostly this is about behavior on a smaller, more quotidian scale. A leader should see her job as eventually shaping every aspect of every employee’s behavior. This is in part because there’s always room for improvement, but mostly it’s because the organization, its members, and its strategy are ever changing, so the leader must lead its members to evolve and adapt. Some people only need to change a tiny amount, while others need to change dramatically, but all need to change.

The leader’s job is to take an organization that doesn’t produce the desired results in the desired quantity for the desired cost and convert it into one that does. Those different outcomes can only come if the organization behaves differently. That organizational behavior is the combination of the behaviors of each member of the organization. The essence of a leader’s job is thus to cause change in the behavior of each member of the organization that leads to the whole organization becoming able to fulfill its ever-evolving purpose.