Is reality based on facts?
Does your reality really exist or is it a story created from facts as
they occur to you? Facts occur in the
past. If your reality is created, can the reality of another really be right or
wrong? Is reality nothing more than a story given to the past as seen from
different lenses? As a leader, we are often confronted with stories that differ
from our own. What is real? An effective
leader does not pass judgment, rather they extend trust. Trust occurs when we
can move beyond the realm of being right to the realm of knowing that what we believe
is nothing more than our own creation based on how something occurs to us. Extending
and earning trust is a practice. Trust then can create a reality if two or more
people can mutually agree upon a story. Leaders should not assume anything in
terms of their own knowledge, skill, or attitude when dealing with others, as
each creation of their reality used with other individuals over time will astound
them in ways that range from wonderful to dreadful.
Leadership today is much more complex in a world of
introspective knowledge and a generation of millennials that want a voice in
the decision making, because they see organizations as flat and not as the
traditional hierarchical structure. I
experienced a phenomenal experience in a leadership conference last week when
senior leadership let go of their reality (that they know more) and extended
trust to other less experienced associates to create new pathways in moving the
company forward. An energized environment opened up a whole new reality—the way
things occur to senior leadership is simply not the same as how it occurs to
others in the organization.
Doctors and lawyers are used to operating in their own
reality based on facts as they know them.
As we approach the season of millennials as patients, clients and
employees, combined with an era of insurance companies yielding influential
power, leaders of these professions should be committed to being part of
something that is bigger than each as an individual. There is the old African
proverb “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”
Be the leader that creates the change you want to see, and in doing so remember
reality is at its best when others are aligned with the concept that the facts
are the past and the past cannot be changed. Be willing to be a part of
creating a new story, be the extraordinary leader—is this a reality?
