I’m a guest writer over at SmartBlog on Leadership today!
The division CEO and chief financial officer glared ferociously at each other after a heated exchange. Twelve others sat tensely around the conference room table, silently assessing their limited options: Do the politically expedient thing and side with the CEO, or do what’s mostly right for the business and side with the CFO?
This lose-lose outcome has it all—power gone wrong, ego overload, and one-track thinking—and plays out all too frequently in businesses of all sizes.
Trapped on the dark side of leadership, some individuals get “so fixated on finding a shortcut to the goal that they may not be too particular about the means they use to reach it,” observes David C. McClelland, psychological theorist and 30-year Harvard University professor. When will leaders learn my-way-or-the-highway isn’t the only option?
3 ways to lead with an open mind
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Only an open mind still has room for new knowledge. What is outgrown and used up must be discarded to make room for what is yet to be learned. ~Robert Fulghum
If people could regard the events of their own lives with more open minds, they would frequently discover that they did not really desire the things they failed to obtain. ~Andre Maurois
Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid. ~Gilbert K. Chesterton
Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for those who have the vision to recognize it as such. ~Henry Miller
It is perfectly possible to have an open mind and live a very principled life, without holding one’s beliefs dogmatically. Having an open mind means being prepared to question even your most central beliefs if there is occasion to do so. It means being open, when the time comes, to having your mind changed by an argument better than one’s own. It means being able to think both sides of an issue, both the side you think is true and the side you think is false. It also means being able to suspend your beliefs, to play devil’s advocate, and to detach yourself somewhat from your own beliefs, actions and feelings. Only living with an open mind gives us a chance to grow and change, for change is inevitable, while growth, unfortunately, is not. ~Jeff Mason
