To what extent are we blinded by our own brilliance?

[Of course, I mean our perception of our own brilliance...whether or not we are anywhere near as bright as we perceive.]

An old friend of mine, George, talked to me many times about his early career where he worked at a multinational energy company that continually found itself 'blinded by its own brilliance'. In fact, some senior folks at the company used that expression almost as often as they use the expression 'paralysis by analysis'. 

My memories of George's stories came back to me when I read the following last week¹:

"So, what can business managers do to become better estimators of their team members' skill and ability? Consulting with someone less experienced may do the trick." [Sian Beilock]

This reminded me not only of my friend George's 'big-company stories' but also the story of Obvious Adams². Obvious Adams was the unassuming fellow who saw obvious and simple solutions while all the people around him were confounded by visions of complexity and mired in unimportant details.

We will definitely take advantage of Sian Beilock's advice: it aligns with Spirited Leaders' philosophy 'Seek Simple'. 

It is easy to believe business is more challenging now than it ever was...and it is easy to forecast that trend will continue. I have heard many people say that. I have said it myself as recently as last week.

But now, after rethinking, I have decided to make a change.

I will never say things like 'business is tougher than it used to be" again. Instead, I will spend the time seeking out and getting advice from more Obvious Adamses.

Footnotes:

1. Sian Beilock, 'Choke', (2010)
2. Robert R. Updegraff, 'Obvious Adams', (1916)

Recently, I was listening to an audio book about 'Courage'. When the audio used the words 'Vigilance' and 'Intention', I wrote those two words in my notepad - one below the other. For some reason, I felt the need to add the word 'Learning' to the bottom of the list. With this done, the sheet in my note pad contained:

Vigilance

Intention

Learning

I like lists and memory tools. When I see lists like this the first letters of the words jump out at me. The first letters of these 3 words caught my attention. While the natural order [top-down] of the first letters of these 3 words was well on its way to spelling the word 'VILE', I read them from the bottom up and saw the word 'LIVE'. And, that's when the word 'Energy' jumped into my mind. So, I reversed the order of the 3 words and added 'Energy' to the bottom of the list:

Learning

Intention

Vigilance

Energy

That was the start of a little list of important words for business people. But, too much was missing. For example, when it comes to business 'Discipline' and 'Strengths' are of about equal importance. One cannot thrive and deliver advantage without the other. I wanted to add both 'Discipline' and 'Strengths' to the list...and the first letters of these two words did not lend themselves to simple addition. If I was going to create a 'memory tool', I needed more words with just the right letters to deliver an important, concise, and memory-friendly message.

On the other hand, this isn't something you can force...at least, I cannot force it. Either words arrive and fit or they don't.

I allowed this to simmer for a few days.

And a few words came to me.

Here is where I ended up.

This list DELIVERS 8 Success Ingredients:

Discipline: knowing the choices are many and knowing the better and best choices are not so many

Energy: recognizing energy is the source of all growth and change, including that of attitude

Learning: viewing life as a long-term school of experiencing and discovering how to avoid hard-knocks

Intention: allowing wisdom, judgment, and volition to guide both thoughts and actions

Vigilance: focusing attention and observing, while keeping personal biases under control

Empathy: being able to understand other people, engage them, and build upon their differences

Resolve: fixing sights on a purpose and having faith about getting to that end point

Strengths: drawing on talent to consistently deliver near-perfect performance

Do you have what it takes to DELIVERS?

Footnote:

We have a 1-Page Tool, which helps people DELIVERS

Years ago I was full of fury. At least, that's how one professional assessment described me. While in that state, as a result of a corporate change, I was given a new boss. My old boss was just fine and I felt no need for a new one. Regardless, I was in my car driving to the first meeting with my new boss. The drive took an hour so I had plenty of time to build up a head of steam. So I did. That assessment was accurate: by the time I arrived at my new boss' office I was full of fury. After we had shaken hands, I sat down in a chair across from him. My new boss asked me to be candid and let him know what was going on. I gave him an earful. In fact, I gave him more than two ears full. When I was done, he had a very pleasant look on his face and he thanked me.

I will never forget that day...the day I received my first real-life lesson on leadership...the day I met a friend for life.