The knowing leader
Being right
From time to time I come across a philosophy of leadership which celebrates being right in all judgments, solutions and answers, particularly in relation to leadership. In this context the leader who appears to be absolutely right, and certain about their rightness, may be revered and celebrated, seen as strong and resolute: like the ship’s commander on deck, barking orders, being unwavering – the apparent source of knowing.
Responsibility and initiative
This somewhat old-fashioned view concentrates the focus in a single person: it’s a simple concept, easy to understand – and it removes responsibility, space for initiative, and power from others in the team. In reality it’s brittle and very dangerous: what happens if that single leader no longer has the capacity to hold all the power? How would others – who have been necessarily disempowered – have learnt how to pick up the reins and lead? It leaves no room for vulnerability, humility, being wrong or – importantly – learning.
Aligning with a single view
The leader – and in fact the team member – who ‘knows’ they’re right inhibits psychological safety because the suggestion (whether implicit or explicit) is that only the leader holds the truth, so that followers are invited – or perhaps expected – to align with that single view. It flies in the face of a philosophy of collective intelligence, which values everyone’s view.
Contain, close things in, close things down
As psychotherapist Barry Mason has written, people may feel certain about what the problem is and what the solution must be. In this zone people are unrealistic, blocking, controlling, potentially confident to the point of arrogant, intransigent and unwilling to listen to feedback. As he says, this is a dangerous place to stay in. From what I’ve observed it’s a place that seeks to contain and close things in. It also closes things down, allowing little room for creativity or adaptability.
The delusion and illusion of ‘knowing’ we’re right in our judgments also closes down creative thinking and in effect excludes others with dissenting views from the process. It’s diametrically opposed to a philosophy of curiosity, openness to possibilities and expansiveness of thinking.
Complexity
Not only are ‘being right’ and ‘knowing the right answer’ in relation to judgments and solutions in fact an illusion, but, very importantly, they don’t engage with the complexity that is the reality of every leader’s life. They mask what is in fact the whole picture, a picture which incorporates BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible, coined by Jamais Cascio to characterise the turbulence of our world) and RUPT (an alternative acronym to VUCA, and referring to Rapid, Unpredictable, Paradoxical, and Tangled). In the leader’s world of challenging problems the path is unlikely to be either straight or direct towards a solution, because such problems consist of interdependencies which are dynamic – they constantly move and change, emerge and fall away into a different perspective, thus changing their relationships with each other. In these contexts there’s no possibility of being right. A more fruitful path is one of collaboratively enquiring and experimenting, shaping hypotheses, trying out and learning, then enquiring and experimenting again.
Readiness not to know
In amongst all this too we find a willingness to accept, the preparedness to be humble, the readiness to not know, and an openness to acknowledging collective intelligence – the intelligence that comes from everyone’s thinking, not just the thinking of one person. These qualities in a leader enable fertile thinking, an expansion of possibilities, adaptability, and greater likelihood of enabling flourishing for themselves, those they lead and the organisation they lead. It can mean swallowing pride – but it can also mean the release of potential and of development or all those involved.
Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
