Leadership can be a very abstract concept.

At the same time, and many times, it manifests itself in small and brief moments.

Andrea Fuentes, in a few seconds, summarized in one dive all the finest concepts of leadership, by saving her swimmer Anita Alvarez from drowning during a routine at the World Aquatics Championships 2022 in Hungary.

Upon diving and rescuing Anita, Andrea embodied the apex of the noblest principle in leadership: absolute commitment! Simple as that. Her impulsive dive to the bottom of the pool brought on the humanistic plasticity her pupil deserved after an impeccable routine.

After so many years, months and days of training and technical support, Andrea repaid her pupil’s great effort and commitment with an immeasurable act of recompense. Anita, still dizzy, uttered only one word upon coming to, still on the surface of the waters: why?

The poetry in this unconscious question lies exactly in its breadth and depth. Andrea could not translate her answer in words at the moment of impact. Nor did she need to... Her scratched face, her teary eyes, her wet body answered perfectly: in the face of the unimaginable, the unquestionable alliance.

In an increasingly more high-tech context, we must ensure the high-touch space that provides just the humanist cohesion digital bonds require. In times of distancing and estrangement, Andrea’s frantic embrace reminds us of the importance of the touch, the gaze, the smile. Our sanity depends on that, more than ever, for us not to succumb to the alienation of the algorithms, the automatons, the apathetic.

Would we have an Andrea in our lives?

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Daniel Augusto Motta é Managing Partner e CEO da BMI Blue Management Institute. Doutor em Economia pela USP, Mestre em Economia pela FGV-EAESP e Bacharel em Economia pela USP. É Alumni OPM Harvard Business School. Atua também como Managing Partner da corporate venture capital WhiteFox sediada em San Francisco (EUA), como Senior Tupinambá Maverick na content tech Bossa.etc e com Membro do Conselho de Administração da Afferolab. Também atua como Diretor de Planejamento Estratégico da UNIBES e Membro do Conselho Deliberativo do MASP. Foi Membro-Fundador da Sociedade Brasileira de Finanças. Foi Professor nos MBAs da Fundação Dom Cabral, Insper, FGV, ESPM e PUC-SP. É autor de diversos artigos publicados por Valor Econômico, EXAME, VocêSA e Folha de São Paulo, e também tem três artigos publicados pela Harvard Business Review Brasil. É autor dos livros best-sellers A Liderança Essencial, Anthesis e Data Insights.

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