Another of my favorite high-traffic posts from previous years…
Effective Leaders Take in Data and Then Make Wise Choices
Life is the sum of all your choices.
~ Albert Camus
It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We have been taught by parents, teachers, other adults in our formative years…
That’s a basis for understanding our culture and heritage, and having a context for learning and behaving…
As adults, it’s time to make our own way…
I heard a man of about 65, an ordained minister, say that he was a “Yellow Dog Democrat” and voted that way because that was what he was taught.
Sad…he’s grown now and never learned to think for himself.
We take sides… Republican/Democrat, Creationist/Evolutionist, Liberal/Conservative, etc…. Rather than being angry or fearful of those with other beliefs, we can embrace opposites as an opportunity for knowledge and perspective.
The thinking leader looks at all the data and makes an informed decision. The growing leader continues to learn from his or her own decisions, whether right or wrong, and the decisions of others around them. Leadership is a skill learned over time on a life journey, not an arrival point of perfection.
We were created to be unique with skills and talents that might be only potential. Our position of influence evolves over time as we are transformed into the person that we were created to be.
The confident leader doesn’t have to have all the glory, attention, or power. The confident leader knows that information is shared and that power is more dispersed and directed, as if conducting a competent orchestra.
If you are sure about everything, then maybe you don’t know enough.
Hugh Ballou
The Transformational Leadership Strategist
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(c) 2012 Hugh Ballou. All rights reserved.