The deeper well

One of the least spoken about features of leadership is pace. Some leaders engage at a fast pace, others prefer a slower pace. The truth is that when you are working by yourself on most projects pace introduces limited intrusions into your ability to perform. This is not true when working with others. Most of us have experienced the frustration with others that could not keep up, or could not slow down, to accommodate our preferred speed. Our biggest issue with pace is that we do not receive adequate feedback from others. It seems that there is a ‘value’ assumption added to pace

“Here’s a curious fact: for the better part of two decades the ADF (Australian Defence Force) has been led by quiet, at times understated leaders, who put a premium on calmness and seldom raise their voices in anger.” This is not the stereotypical leader we expect in the army or even in business. Surely the best leaders are loud, outgoing, assertive people who seek attention and act dominant. Apparently not...

Here’s how it works: intelligent people join organisations and end up turning off their ability to question, doubt and challenge things around them in the organisation. Why: because the organisation has employed stupidity management to elicit simple, clear direction that stifles the use of creativity, knowledge and intellect.

It is almost uniformly true that regardless of whether leadership is established through experience or learning, leaders rarely think about the foundation their leadership is actually built on.

We all like to think we make good decisions but few of us think about what makes a decision ’good’.  Is a good decision one where we get the outcome we were hoping for?

Josh was struggling at work. He is in the top position in his organisation, believes that he does his job well, but has received feedback from staff and volunteers (over a period of time) that they don’t really enjoy working with him and find him too controlling.