Managing Leadership^®

The modern world of business is filled with surprising twists and turns, and sometimes wholly unexpected results. Our actions, seen from our own perspective, are reasonable, generally productive, and even virtuous. But seen from others’ eyes, they may be revealed to be poorly considered, counterproductive, and even unintentionally harmful.

In this light, let’s visit once more the story of our sad comrade-in-arms, Don Quixote. The last time we checked in, an enlightened figure of the times had decided he would resolve the core dilemma. This expert imposed on the situation both a diagnosis and a cure - and they were both unrelentingly certain and harsh: Quixote was mad. And his madness must be cured by being revealed to itself.

And there appeared before our disheveled hero the Knight of the Mirrors. On cue, he and his retinue turned their burnished shields, shining like polished mirrors, to Quixote. He could not escape seeing his own wrenchingly pitiful image in them - no match at all for his cherished vision. Every direction he turned, there he was: not a glorious armored knight, but a feeble old man with a barber’s shaving basin perched ridiculously on his head in the place of a helmet. This was no wizardry. This was the truth.

Quixote collapsed in despair. When he awoke, his madness had retreated, but so had his will, his strength for the struggle of life.

How do we deal with the unexpected images presented to us of ourselves, our cherished goals, our work, by the expert representatives of interests of all ideological, political, and social stripes? Do we yield to their version of the truths they project, dissipating the vigor of our own convictions?

If we do, in the end, what maintains us, really? As Wally Bock asks, do we know, anymore - or still remember - who we are? Are we willing to remember - to fight for our faith in what we believe that to be - in the face of such unceasing efforts either to dissuade or deride us?

In the end, it is the answers to questions like these that determine our will to persevere as individuals and institutions. Not resources or connections - but the answer to questions like those. Shall we steel ourselves to accept the judgment of those many would-be knights of the mirrors that beset us, or should we cling stubbornly - madly, even - to our own vision of who we are - or ought to be?

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Today’s tip: Speaking of our tendency to project images of ourselves on others, please see this post by Seth Godwin about how misguided are mass email campaigns, no matter how cleverly concealed the boilerplate may be. Here is the key quote from the piece, a bit of advice: “Contact them about them, not about you.”

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Technorati Tags: business, perspective, productive, counterproductive, Don Quixote, expert, Knight of the Mirrors, goal, work, Seth Godwin, Wally Bock