Leading Thoughts for February 20, 2025

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with:

I.

Richard Farson on contradictions:

“Contradictory impulses to both succeed and fail can be found in every project, every work team, even every individual. Every management choice, Job offer, or new applicant can appear both appealing and unappealing. Every deal is both good and bad. That is why leadership is essentially the management of dilemmas, and why tolerance for ambiguity—coping with contradictions—is essential for leaders, and why appreciating the coexistence of opposites is crucial to the development of a different way of thinking. It is often the most valuable service one can offer an organization. But it requires nontraditional thinking.

Deeply held ideologies and cultural values, tunnel vision, selective perception, deference to the judgment of others—these are all enemies in our efforts to see what is really going on.”

Source: Management of the Absurd: Paradoxes in Leadership

II.

Steven B. Sample on thinking gray:

“The leader whose thinking is constrained within well-worn ruts, who is completely governed by his established passions and prejudices, who is incapable of thinking either gray or free, and who can’t even appropriate the creative imagination and fresh ideas of those around him, is as anachronistic and ineffective as the dinosaur. He may, by dint of circumstances, remain in power, but his followers would almost certainly be better off without him.”

Source: The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership

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Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index.

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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:20 AM
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