It seems a contradiction: to associate leadership with stillness, waiting, the silent observation of what is happening around us? Isn't leadership mainly composed of dynamism, creative force, constant initiative, insistently moving minds and wills in pursuit of an achievement?
Of course. However, today's world, overloaded with stimuli and urgencies, is forcing us to pay too much attention to immediacy. We are not quite digesting what is happening around us and we already want to jump into action and urge others to get moving to rise to the occasion. In a reductionist or traditional leadership scheme, this behavior is supposedly the most effective.
Leaders strive to demonstrate that they are genuine leaders by meeting challenges, by proposing or maintaining a position or by making a criterion prevail without stopping to consider that in some cases it is prudent and necessary to pick up, slow down, enrich their own points of sight, practice prolepsis (that is, anticipate objections) and ensure that key decisions in the upper echelons of organizations are turned into goldsmith work.
"He who thinks, loses", "he who is silent, grants", action, action, a leader lives by and for action! "," Burdens are composed on the fly "," the past is past, the future it is a promise. Only today and now matter ”. Let us observe that these conceptualizations are characteristics of leadership based on dynamism, on the urgency to "do something", on the itch to show that one has a great capacity to respond to all kinds of challenges.
The risky thing about this emphasis is to neglect or undervalue the reflective component of leadership. When leadership is plural, nothing better than trying to preserve the balance of forces between dynamic leadershipand the observer / reflective. We all like to be appreciated for our determination and the value of our arguments, but even a series of successes or an impeccable record of great achievements does not exempt us from making a great mistake or pushing others to do it. The fervent desire to innovate, to make up lost ground, to make something happen, or to get certain results can become a boomerang. It is worth remembering that in athletic competitions there is not only the hundred-meter dash; We also have the relay race, the obstacle course, the walk, the semi-distance race, the cross-country race, the half marathon and the marathon.
A leadershipobservant / reflective and healthy critic, exercised by those who wisely choose a rearguard position, can save organizations many mistakes and setbacks. Now, it is important to clarify that one or another position should not be labeled as that of “the side of Doctors Yes versus the side of Doctors No” nor should observation / reflection be degraded to a lazy or comfortable passivity. In fact, more than sides, we should talk about strategies in which the contestants pursue high common objectives in such a versatile way that they even allow each other to go from the enthusiastic / dynamic to the observer / reflective posture depending on the challenges to be assumed. and their complexity. What is natural and expected is that the enthusiastic / dynamic force predominates,but that does not mean that the observing / reflective force - and let us add patient - should be reduced to its minimum expression. Sometimes it must become the dominant force.
Imagine the great progress an organization would make if it learned to successfully encourage and develop the concurrence of these two forces. Essential, in my view, a management like these applied to the subject of Negotiating Skills or High Performance Work Teams. The ones promoting and strengthening the benefits and advantages of a purpose or a project and the others devoted to the conscientious study of certain apparent or real weaknesses that can be underestimated due to excess enthusiasm, confidence, or management styles that "never fail."
I will never forget the lesson that Raúl Senior, son of one of the most prominent sports leaders in Colombia, taught me in the second half of the last century. At the end of the 1970s, Raúl was the principal of one of the best schools in my city and I was a restless high school student who frequently attended an after-school club.
“When a certain number of people come to a meeting, the same thing almost always happens,” he told me. "Discussions begin and four or five people dispute the privilege of making themselves heard at any cost… More than one is right in what he says, but is so focused on being convincing that he stops perceiving the height, width and depth of certain aspects. He even fails to notice some 'subtleties' that cannot be put aside…
What do I do in many meetings? I watch, I smile, I listen, I take notes and I don't say a single word. People give me one ingredient after another and I make my main course for the most opportune moment. And what is the most opportune moment? When everyone, surprised, begins to look at me as if wanting to hear my opinion. They are concerned that I, as rector, do not try to say a single word, as if being a good leader would be equivalent to carrying a script full of speeches and infallible recipes under my arm… Sometimes I invite them to continue arguing and, after a hour, I intervene. I take this plus this plus the other and offer you a consistent, solid appreciation. 'But of course, Raúl, that's where it is! And why didn't you say so before! '…
… Because he who listens well contributes as much or more as he who speaks well. And I have taken the liberty of interpreting, of turning everything they have said into something more than the sum of their opinions ”. Goldsmith's work, dear Raúl.
