A call for courage

I know that when you look from the outside, it is far easier to be objective and see solutions and have interesting ideas on how to improve or fix a situation. Personally I think that is the one thing men find most challenging about women - that Adam has to shut up and let Eve talk (regardless of her own muddled thoughts) in order for her to reach some sort of clarity or calmness without being given 'answers'.

The other big challenge (this is now with all of us...) is that when someone does approach you with the answers, or as David Rock (neuroscience expert) calls it "certainty", people (or our brains) respond horribly wrong. We shut down, disengage, disconnect, mentally exit the conversation.

For someone that hates to be 'told' - hence the self acclaimed 'unemployable' status -  I know that the possibility of incredibly negative consequences to 'shutting down' will not stop me from doing it. As childish and self-destructive as it sounds, it happens to all of us. The 'being told' factor, in other words: 'I know and you don't' attitude, or creating 'I have certainty and clarity on the matter' perceptions - giving the ultimate answer, all of this closes the opportunity to brilliant ideas and new fresh solutions.

Apart from all of these related challenges to getting the great ideas out there, leadership in organisations also has to create a 'safe space' - be brave enough to encourage controversial difficult conversations, in spite of their own fear and possibly personal risk associated with it. The succession planning topic calls for such courageous leadership.

I often get a sense from my clients that ideally all roles should be filled with responsible people that use their own initiative, work diligently, but are completely without ambition. When we get them to how they should be performing in that role, they should just stay there. Forever.

Okay, so that's unfortunately not realistic. And that brings the struggle (and opportunity) of finding interesting solutions and trying new things.

This made me think of something my son said: "Mom, you don't understand, he is like a calculator! He can do 1+1, but not a+b..." He overheard a conversation about my frustrations around someone not thinking of different ways to approach a problem. I suppose being like a 'calculator' has its place too, it is with the really brave conversations where we have to open ourselves up to fresh formulas.

Motto Model: http://goo.gl/cNnpy and Motto Individual Assessment: http://goo.gl/UhC7V
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