A few years ago a low budget movie became a box office smash. The story line followed a boy who had a mysterious capacity to see what other people could not see—in this case seeing and interacting with people who weren't alive. The famous line in this movie, The Sixth Sense, was the boy's revelation, "I see dead people." It's eerie but quite memorable.

A pastor said to me, "Big deal. I see that at every deacon's meeting."

Leaders, too, have a special intuition—a sixth sense, if you will. We probably all know leaders whose internal compass consistently works better than anyone else's in the room. Everyone else is trying to find the right direction in a particular circumstance, and then this individual, who's been quietly listening, speaks up and suggests a certain course, and everybody says, "That's it. Of course, that's it." How did he or she do that?

I know leaders who can perceive the future better than the average person. They can see the implications of current decisions on ...