Hi, I’m Ian McClean, founder of Flow Group and GreenLine Conversations. This podcast has grown out of the chaos that’s been thrust upon us. And in it, I share the best of 25 years of helping leaders in business organizations deal and cope with change. So, as you’re out there, busy making sense of it all, trying to cope, and repurposing your organisations, I’m hoping that some of this will provide some help, some of the time. I’ll keep it deliberately short, because I know you’re busy. Let’s dive in.
It’s safe to say in the modern era, we’re drowning in information and certainly more information than wisdom. As the main area I’ve been involved in through my career is the area of leadership. It’s not unusual that the most frequently asked question to me is what exactly is leadership? If you punch the word into Google today, You’ll get a cool 4. 3 billion results. If you confine it down to leadership books on the subject, you’ll end up with just a mere 550 million.
So where do you start? Well, one of the areas where I like to start is to share a story, which is a very small vignette from the very famous book by Paulo Coelho called The Alchemist. It’s a part of the book that is a simple fable and the allegory stands for itself. So I’ll tell you the story and then we can deconstruct it afterwards.
A certain shopkeeper sent his son to learn about the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world. The lad wandered through the desert for 40 days and finally he came upon a beautiful castle high atop a mountain. It was there that the wise man lived. Rather than finding a saintly man, though, our hero, on entering the main room of the castle, saw a hive of activity. Tradesmen came and went, people were conversing in the corners, a small orchestra was playing soft music, and there was a table, covered with platters of the most delicious food in that part of the world.
The wise man conversed with everyone, and the boy had to wait for two hours before it was his turn to be given the man’s attention. The wise man listened attentively to the boy’s explanation for why he had come, but told him that he didn’t have time just then to explain the secret of happiness. He suggested instead that the boy look around the palace and return in two hours. Meanwhile, I want to ask you to do something, said the wise man, handing the boy a teaspoon that held two drops of oil. As you wander around, carry the spoon with you without the oil to spill.
The boy began climbing and descending the main stairways of the palace, keeping his eyes fixed on the spoon. After two hours, he returned to the room where the wise man was. Well, asked the man, did you see the Persian tapestries that are hanging in my dining hall? Did you see the garden that it took the master gardener ten years to create? Did you notice the beautiful parchments in my library?
The boy was embarrassed, and confessed that he had observed nothing. His only concern had been not to spill the oil that the wise man had entrusted to him. Then, go back and observe the marvels of my world, said the wise man. You cannot trust a man if you don’t know his house. Relieved, the boy picked up the spoon and returned to the exploration of the palace, this time observing all the works of art on the ceilings and the walls. He saw the gardens. The mountains all around him, the beauty of the flowers, and the taste with which everything had been selected.
Upon returning to the wise man, he related in detail everything he’d seen. But where are the drops of oil I entrusted to you, said the wise man. Looking down at the spoon he held, the boy saw that all the oil was gone. Well, there’s only one piece of advice I can give you, said the wisest of wise men.
The secret of happiness. Is to see all the marvels of the world, but never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon. Of course, there are many ways to interpret this story. It may well be the secret to happiness, but it certainly has a lot of lessons when it comes to the underlying foundations of leadership. You see, inherent in leadership, there’s a tension. A tension between, as in the vignette, the marvels and the oil in the spoon.
And as a leader, it’s the most critical thing in my experience that managers and leaders have to try to manage the tension around. Reconciling the two things is a tension that needs to be managed consistently rather than a problem that needs to be solved. Both need to be consistently reconciled and balanced. How can we interpret this? Well, as leaders, we need to be able to look up. So we can consider the future whilst at the same time look down to focus on what’s important in the present.
In our enterprises, we need to have vision, but also we need a robust operations. At a personal level, as a leader of myself, I need to be able to balance being with doing. At the most practical level, It’s the ability to be able to understand and prioritize the important whilst at the same time dealing with the urgent. It’s not a case of either or, it’s a case of both and, because both are necessary and they must co exist. As the old Japanese proverb goes, vision without action is a daydream, but action without vision is a nightmare.
If you’re responsible for yourself. Or you’re responsible for your enterprise and others. You need to be in a position to care for both. You need to be able to appreciate the marvels whilst maintaining the oil in the spoon. Turning the metaphor into practical experience.
Rarely have I met somebody who is capable and equally able to do both. One thing I do when I’m working with leaders is I get them to draw a line with their leaders.. Two ends, one of which I label doer, and the other I label visionary. And I get them to plot along the continuum from doer, absolute doer, to absolute visionary, where they would put themselves naturally and spontaneously. Because everybody has a tendency or a bias, and sometimes it’s a heavy or maybe even a light bias, towards being one or the other.
Some of the greatest visionaries that I’ve met in my life Are either today broke or in a field of broken dreams. They prioritized the marbles and the tapestries at the expense of the oil. By contrast, some of the most effective doers that I’ve encountered in my career, in spite of all of their grit and activity and focus, have never managed to make the breakthrough.
One particular visionary I know. managed to expand the business across four continents. And in doing so found the right person who was the doer or the implementer to help and support the vision that they had and to put in the infrastructure to bring it to life. However, because their characters were by definition very, very different. The differences at a certain point under the pressure of expansion and work became too great and their relationship faltered.
The business began to splinter until it ultimately fell apart. On the other side, one of the most fantastic implementers and doers that I’ve encountered was hired by a large global organization as a COO. With the view to becoming the next CEO, when the current incumbent stepped down. However, about a year into the role, it became apparent that this COO was drowning in detail and paralyzed by the volume of data that they felt the need to comb through on a regular basis.
The incumbent CEO began to notice The pace had slowed down and things had become much more deliberate. Decision making had stalled and there was slow to no action taking place on many projects. Equally, he began to notice how morale was dropping, to a point where the direct reports of the COO were bypassing the COO and coming directly to the CEO with some of their frustrations. to a point where some of the best people were threatening to leave. Because the COO was so focused on keeping the oil in the spoon, he was unable to inspire or move the business forward into the direction it needed to go.
And this limitation meant that he got passed over for the role of CEO when the incumbents stepped down. So, here are some reflective questions.
Question number one is, where does the metaphor Of the marvels versus the oil and the spoon show up in your life.
The second question is, where does your strength lie? Are you more inclined towards the doer and focused on the oil? Or are you somebody who really marvels at the wonders of the palace?
And the second sub-question to this question is, are you really leveraging the power that you have? Or are you trying to do something that isn’t naturally your gift? And if you are leveraging it, how are you compensating and making sure that the other side is cared for or catered for?
So, in summary, how are you balancing both sides of the continuum? And finally, how are you caring for or catering for the side that is not your strength?
So, I hope you’ve enjoyed the story. I hope you’ve enjoyed the metaphor. I hope you found the reflection useful and that you’re able to think about it and reflect it in your own work and in your own life. And until next time, stay safe, stay sane, stay connected.
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