Unleash The Power Of These 4 Leadership Paradoxes

Greeting from Barcelona!

Read time: 3 minutes, 47 seconds

On my way to the company offsite I'm speaking at this week, our cab driver was gracious enough to allow us to see La Sagrada Familia.

My pictures do it no justice. But seeing it left me wondering how something so captivating, so beautiful, and so vital could remain unfinished for more than 140 years. Perhaps true greatness cannot be rushed. Or perhaps the beauty is in the creation and not the completion.

And like Gaudi's cathedral, our work as leaders is a vision never fully realized. Part of what makes it elusive is that principles we know to be certain get refuted, the strengths that propelled us forward now hold us back, and practices we've come to rely on undermine our progress.

Doing and leading are not the same.

Leading is easy to understand and hard to implement.

• Leaders need followers.

• Followers want a mission.

• A mission demands a plan.

• The plan calls for execution.

• And execution depends on the behaviors of all involved.

So leading requires people to behave in a coordinated way. Simple.

But people have this pesky way of keeping us on our toes. They grow. They change their minds. They guard turf. They lie to themselves. They find new dreams.

Sustainably coordinating any group is elusive.

I've shared brief thoughts on counterintuitive lessons and leadership paradoxes before, but I thought it would be worthwhile to dive deeper into a handful of them and offer practical ideas for hitting them head-on.

Saying Yes earned you a role that requires you to say No.

Stars solve for Yes. They go beyond their boundaries. They take on extra assignments. They strive. But when you become a manager, you now get rewarded for saying No (as long as you do so with finesse).

No comes in many forms: focus, priorities, discipline, and restraint. You need to master words like edit, delete, streamline and defer.

You're not saying No to stifle creativity or slow progress. You're saying No because you want to encourage both in the right direction. You're not saying No because you don't want to spend money. You're saying No so you can invest in the highest return ways.

Warren Buffett talks about making one good Yes decision every 5 years. Just imagine more than 1800 days of No.

So yes, you can cancel the meeting. You can decline the ancillary project. You can postpone the promotion until your person is prepared.

Vulnerability is a show of strength.

It's no secret that I believe self-awareness is a superpower for leaders. Because if we go back to leadership being the simple act of getting others to behave in coordinated ways, you need a deep understanding of how you will impact their behavior.

There are times when your strength will become a liability for the team. I am an emergent, extroverted thinker. I gain clarity by thinking out loud. In times of crisis, people need you to reduce ambiguity, not introduce it. If I operate in my preferred mode, I unwittingly undermine my goals.

Being vulnerable does not mean being the victim.