The top leader at an organization can feel frenzied, unfocused, and isolated. According to John McCann, however, that doesn’t have to be case. John is the founder and president of Partners in Performance and lead designer for the National Guild’s Community Arts Education Leadership Institute (CAELI). In this interview with the Guild, he discusses how the role of the executive leader has shifted in the past three decades; how to create a collective vision while maintaining an individual perspective; how leaders can distinguish between loneliness and solitude; and how to draw on both allies and confidants to maintain a sense of connectivity, excitement, and purpose.