Socien's Blog

Some people lack before they see, observe and understand if anything is lacking. They are inadequate before they are. They need more before they know how many and how much. Their major problem is they will never get to know how much they need. They already need a jacket before they go out and see if it is warm or cold.

A second group is those who can’t let themselves live with other’s preferences for the better common good. Even if they happen to be a minority of the minority they just want their interests served. This characteristic may just co-exist with the one mentioned in the above paragraph or one in the next.

Lastly, there are people who can’t handle more because more is not sufficient as less is. This group knows that both extremes, without or excessive, are unbearable. Too much of something, nomatter how positive is, is a danger. Yet too little of what is a requirement is another danger.

When you become a leader you will need not only to serve the interests of these three groups but to satisfy all in whatever you do. What a good leader does is, he first propagate a single standard and level of satisfaction that he intends to have and tolerate out of his those he leads. He does this through softer means, creating a cause that can only be served by falling for that level of satisfaction. But mostly he understands that the third grouping makes sense, although not always.

A company will need to be innovative. Too much of innovation isn’t ideal because when you innovate you need to follow up and see if it works. When you lead a company, you are one who limits that innovation and expand it when necessary. But your position is one of gathering the demands of each group of persons’ interests, preferences and decide which one to go for. When there is no proper way to go for you create a way forward out of what you have gathered.

Which way to choose

The success of a CEO and the that of the company depends on how much value the CEO and the company extracts from the people who works for it. The company needs workers who finds what they give the company lacking. Such things workers give to the company are innovation, labor and commitment. Nvidia is one such company who workers are always thirsty to give. The secret is fire none. Welcome the ideas each and ever workers has to offer offer. The company also needs workers who find what the company give them adequate. In this case salary is my prime reference.

The success of a community leader or the leader of a nation depends on how much value that leader gives to the people s/he leads. When leading people for progress and not for profit you need to be selfless. The rise of such aselfless leader is his downfall. He lose a great chunk of social, wealth and the potential to make more of it just to give the people his best.

Leading by consensus

My uncle made it a rule that who ever makes it first to the tea must make sure that he puts sugar in the tea for all us in the teapot. “It saves time,” our then contractor who happens to be my uncle said. This was not done in the philosophy of building a healthy team, but whoever was in charge of putting sugar in the tea played a vital leadership role. He had people of three difference tastes and his duty was to strike a balance in the level of taste he had to offer them.

Once we were all settled for breakfast no one was allowed to add more sugar into his respective cup, but to welcome the preset taste. Terrence preferred sweeter, and he usually was above us in his sugar requirements. He could always try add some more before tasting the tea and this is lacking before finding our what is lacking. Uncle’s idea was to have us communicate in a way that is less offensive to Terrence how bad too much sugar is. But to have him become less selfish and consider our preferences each time he was to put sugar into the tea, and strike the balance.

It is not all the sugar you will put in that will please anyone. Too much will ruin some other’s breakfast smiles. Less sugar will not good for some. So you you have to learn to find the balance if you are to put some sugar in the teapot. If you are to lead you have to build a habit of finding a balance for the rest of the team. It is not about what the team wants to perform but how it wants it.

When a decision is made by a group. It is not only a decision. It is consensus. The duty of the true leader is discovering the consensus hidden inside the hearts of the people he leads. The people he leads are distinct in their views and preferences. The leader will not be able to implement what’s fair enough for everyone. So he must rely on consensus. To discover that consensus, he learns from the people he leads.

Great leaders like Mandela and Lincoln did not stop at discovering the consensus. They went further and taught the people under their leadership to welcome the consensus. A healthy society, team or nation will depend on not only the on the consensus but the discovery of all the consensus, and the leader’s ability to choose the best one. A true leader uses all his imagination to discover the consensus.