Leadership – A Weird Shade of Grey

Leadership is creating the rules, breaking the rules and enforcing the rules. Leadership isnnovative. Take risks but fail early and often. You shouldn’t have all the answers. Your style can be black, white or adaptive.  One person’s grey could be another’s black. There are many shades of grey and the shade is often determined by the receiver not sender. Welcome to leadership, a weird shade of grey.

Grey sits at the intersection of confusion and clarity. It can straddle comfortable and uncomfortable. Grey transforms consistency into inconsistency. It can be exhilarating or dull. Grey makes it easier to just do and then ask for forgiveness later.

Questions to help you determine if the grey should be black or white:

Will it be hurtful?
Will it tarnish your reputation or the reputation of others?
Will it cause chaos and destruction?
Will doing this be something you would be proud to tell the world you did, regardless of outcome?

If the answer to those questions is NO then the grey becomes black or white. Use these questions to make a fork in the road allowing you to choose another path.

Can anything good come from the weird shade of grey?

The weird shade of grey is a great place to be when faced with the unknown, provided that your moral compass is functioning. The weird shade of grey can help you innovate and to create something new. This weird shade of grey is where there can be exponential growth, pushing you outside of your comfort zone.

In the weird shade of grey you can accelerate your leadership trajectory and inspire others to have a better future. It is a place where risk lives and when the risk proves successful the rewards can be very sweet. When the risk doesn’t pan out, the learning’s can be invaluable.

Learn to see the weird shade of grey and when it should be embraced and when it should be used to help correct the course. Instead of slapping someone’s hand when they breath life into a mistake out of the grey, help them to understand why it should have been black or white. The grey will always be there, helping others understand that and to see the weird shade of grey is what leadership is all about.

Last updated on March 9th, 2018 at 05:30 am