Managing Leadership^®

We saw yesterday that Occam’s Razor cuts both ways. But it certainly is worth keeping close at hand. As in so many things, an even more serious problem than oversimplifying an issue can be the obfuscation of it with superficial complexity.

Many people thrive on this. They confuse simplicity with a lack of refinement, and presume that only great, imposingly labyrinthine conceptual structures reflect true sophistication.

This problem can appear in two forms. The most common is to toss intellectual fairy dust over a topic, creating delightfully ornate and energetic edifices all around it. They blink and shine and amaze, but fade away, essentially a transitory distraction from that which they falsely embellish.

The other is to probe with conspicuous eruditeness into the origins of the subject. With respect to leadership, though, this is usually done – as are so many things in this area – with the desired result in mind. Consequently, the foundation either seems dangerously adulterated with distantly tangential components, or precariously unsuited to the structure erected on it.

Occam’s Razor teaches us to select the theory that answers all our questions while making the fewest assumptions, and positing the smallest number of constructs from them. Those that are devoted to complexity for its own sake, on the mistaken belief that concepts, in order to be valid, must be impenetrable, usually make one or both of those errors while missing the overall point altogether.

But there’s another aspect to the problem that is more mystifyingly persistent, yet. We will take a look at that tomorrow, before turning to some of the more pernicious implications of all of this. Looking forward to seeing you then!

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Today’s tips: Yesterday’s post was about the peculiar relationship often asserted to exist between individual leadership and charismatic swagger. But Cultural Offering points us to another important aspect of the term. Please stop over to click through to it. I have linked you to the main page, rather than the post, because if you haven’t already, you are going to want to become accustomed to a daily visit to see what he’s noticed over there, and what he has to say about it.

Speaking of looking to the origins of an issue, please see how this is done with eloquent directness and relevance, by John Phillips.

Books on history typically aren’t reviewed here, and this one won’t be either. But I nevertheless definitely want to encourage you – as managers – to read Adam Nicolson’s “Seize the Fire,” about the 1805 naval battle of Trafalgar. You will learn more about the dynamics of leadership in an organization – and their management – than even the author may have intended. Many thanks to Michael Wade for the tip.

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