Effective leaders challenge processes and the “status quo.”
As a young couple was cooking their first big meal in their new home, the wife prepared a roast by cutting off the two ends before placing the roast in the oven. When her husband asked why she had cut off the ends of the roast, she replied that her mother had always done this. She then decided to phone her mother to learn the reason for doing this. When the mother’s response was that her mother had done it this way, the couple phoned the grandmother. Grandma’s reply was stated very simply when she said, “That was the only way the roast would fit into my roasting pan!”
How often in business, and in life, have you heard someone say, “But we have always done it this way”? In my studies of effective leaders, I’ve determined that all effective leaders challenge existing processes. They seek challenges and look for ways to innovate, to make things better. Leaders actually embrace change.
Innovation, challenge, and change require the willingness to take risks. In The Leadership Challenge, James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner say, “Whenever leaders experiment with innovative ways of doing things, they put themselves and others at risk. Yet if we want to lead efforts to improve the way things are, we must be willing to take risks; we must, to paraphrase Eleanor Roosevelt, do the things we think we cannot.”
In On Becoming a Leader, Warren Bennis states that leaders have curiosity and daring. Wanting to learn as much as they can, they are willing to take risks, to experiment, and to innovate. “They wring knowledge and wisdom from every mistake and learn from adversity.”
Erica Jong said, “If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.”
Change is inevitable in today’s world. In his best seller, Thriving on Chaos, Tom Peters declares, “the world has not just turned upside down. It is turning every which way at an accelerating pace…. Today, loving change, tumult, even chaos is a prerequisite for survival, let alone success.”
Paul G. Stoltz, Ph.D., author of the best-selling book, Adversity Quotient: Turning Obstacles into Opportunities, states, “Without adversity, we can never unleash our greatness.” Many of the contributors to my women’s leadership book, Some Leaders Are Born Women, attested to this. Rather than being consumed by a victim mentality, they looked at the major challenges in their lives as growth opportunities and say now that they have become strong leaders because of the adversities, rather than in spite of them.
Helen Keller is an example of a much-admired leader, who overcame major adversity in her life. Shut off from the world by an illness that left her blind and deaf at age eighteen months, Helen later grew into a highly sensitive woman who spent her life writing, speaking, and working for the betterment of others. Until the age of ten when Annie Sullivan came to be her teacher, Helen was uncontrollable. Through patience and care, Annie was able to teach Helen to speak and to live a “normal” life.
In 1904, Helen became the first deaf-blind person to graduate from college. While a student at Radcliffe, she began her writing career, which continued for 50 years. She wrote twelve books and numerous articles on blindness, deafness, social issues, and women’s rights. She brought a message of love, courage, and hope to millions of disabled people.
In the Helen Keller story, there is another great leader – Annie Sullivan, Helen’s teacher, who is often called “the miracle worker.” Some might say that Annie was just doing her job; however, by doing her job and by truly caring, Annie was able to bring a ten-year-old deaf-blind girl back into the world. Because of Annie’s caring leadership, Helen was able to grow and make her enormous contribution to the world.
Strong leaders grow through challenges and adversity. They challenge processes and the “status quo,” look for ways to innovate, and embrace change. They also establish a sense of urgency, create short-term wins, and are excited about the future. By doing so, they are creating opportunities for growth.
How have challenges in your life contributed to your growth?
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