Managing Leadership^®

The world seems to be awash with polarizing issues. Secularism/democracy/religiosity, private/public health care, globalization/protectionism, capitalism/socialism, individual sovereignty/paternalistic government, environmentalism/consumerism, global warming (or not) – take your pick. Everyone from the Pope to politicians, from film-makers to corporations, seems to have something divisive to say about one or more of these, or an uncompromising stance to conspicuously take.

You would think that all this animosity would cause great unhappiness, particularly among those who felt most strongly about the issues. But this may not be so. In fact, according to a study quoted in a WSJ commentary published on Monday, those at either extreme of the American political spectrum report themselves as being substantially happier than do those who are moderates, or even those of the non-extreme left or right.

So, the more extreme our views, the more sure we tend to be of them, and the greater contentment we feel in that certainty. Sound plausible to you?

Let’s look at what this means for the world of management. I have found that the least effective managers are those most certain of themselves. Like trains that cannot yield the track, they inevitably crash into another of their own kind. Their organizations spill off the rails behind them. But they, heedless, often simply right themselves somehow, and, dumb and happy, do it all over again.

There is something to be said for strength of will, of course, but not when it is unthinkingly reliant on theory, and unmindful of experience.

The best managers are those who maintain a healthy – not enervating, but alert and heedful – skepticism of their own abilities and decisions. Such managers consider the issues, ask questions, seek answers wherever they might be found. Then they take a stand, and they move with resolve. But they don’t abandon their open-mindedness just because they’ve left the station; they still keep a wary eye out for loose track, or even a new line.

Lacking the sure-footedness – suitable to blind certitude – afflicting those at the extremes, this is indistinct, precarious ground, in the middle, for a manager to trod. But it is where you develop true strength, experience, and judgment, rather than false confidence, passively received wisdom, and derived opinion.

Better to be cheerfully cognizant of your shortcomings, and thus prepared to remedy them, than to be unreflectively happy in your blindness to them.

Strive to be an unhappy, unsatisfied manager, always, as Vaclav Havel cautioned, seeking – but never confident of having found – the truth.

—

Don’t forget to subscribe, using either the email or RSS feed options available at the top of the sidebar on the right – we will look forward with pleasure to your joining us!

Technorati Tags: management, organizations, Vaclav Havel, Individual Leadership, Professionalism