The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership

Some of us have been lucky enough to receive training on how to be a principled leader. Others have taken it upon themselves to read and learn from the vast variety of leadership books out there. Yet others have had to learn to lead through the school of hard knocks called life. 

No matter how you learned to be the leader you are today, there are times that something VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) rears its ugly head, and you have no idea what to do. 

Tim Elmore, author of “The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership: Embracing the Conflicting Demands of Today’s Workplace”, addresses some of those situations. 

He believes that leaders today need more than just intelligence, education and charisma. He feels that employees come to work today more knowledgeable, entitled, exposed, emotional and expecting. To lead a team such as this in a VUCA workplace, you have to differentiate yourself with social and emotional intelligence. But Elmore recognizes even that is not enough. Mastering these eight paradoxes he shares can give you that edge you need. 

Great Leaders…  

• Balance confidence and humility
• Leverage their vision and their blind spots
• Embrace visibility and invisibility
• Are stubborn and open
• Are deeply personal and personal and inherently collective
• Are both teachers and learners
• Model high standards and gracious forgiveness
• Are timely and timeless

In each of these paradoxes, he shares stories of great leaders that have figured it out, backed up with research and evidence to support how these two completely different actions or traits will help you in the workplace. 

For example, balancing confidence and humility may seem almost contradictory – a paradox, you might say. But these two conflicting traits can help a leader be more authentic, believable and credible. Elmore suggests that you have to be humble enough to acknowledge your imperfections, but still display inspiring confidence when leading. This balancing of humility and confidence attributes to a learning mindset, and the people you lead will be more likely to reciprocate. 

At the need of the chapter on balancing confidence and humility (just like every other paradox), Elmore offers ideas on how to practice this paradox: 

• When in decision-making meetings, argue as if you believe you are right, but listen as if you believe you are wrong. 
• When in conflict with a team member, be willing to lose a few battles. 
• Remain teachable when introduced to new content.
• Be confident, not over self-assured.
• Don’t confuse confidence with certainty.
• Don’t let humility make you shy. 
• Know what you don’t know and trust in what you do.
• To avoid being overconfident, listen to what people say your imperfections are.
• When tempted to brag about yourself, turn it around and brag about someone else.

Yes, it is a challenge to lead in today’s world, but Elmore wrote this book for those who want to be that uncommon leader willing to take the demands of a VUCA world. 

Reference:

“The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership: Embracing the Conflicting Demands of Today’s Workplace” by Tim Elmore