Old Growth Forests and .... Leadership?

We're just back from a few days of tramping around old growth forests near Sisters, Oregon. To show you how weird our brains are it all got me thinking about leadership qualities that are all too scarce in today's business environment.

Some of what you can't escape as you experience the wonder of an old growth forest is the reality of time. The hundreds of years it takes to develop the glorious resource that is around you is obvious and humbling in a way. But what one also can't escape is the impact of man's decisions on this precious resource. I don't just mean pre-meditated crime.. that's obvious. But what we learned about was the impact on this environment over the years from well intentioned decisions by people, by caretakers, by politicians, by business, and by government.

We learned of scores of decisions and actions that seemed right at the time but also caused unintended consequences that resulted in major problems. Unintended consequences... if they had only known.

And that's when my brain started thinking about Leadership. It is simply not enough to do the research, to perform the analysis, to run the numbers, and let the bottom line give you the answer. The most effective leaders we see are those who exhibit leadership qualities that search for full understanding. They search because they know it is likely that every solution also carries some unintended consequence.

They may still make mistakes but the most effective leaders dig deep to see what unintended consequence might be lurking within a solution. They exhibit a leadership style that both questions and listens, especially to those with a different point of view. They insist on additional tactics to mitigate possible unintended negative consequences.

In short, they exhibit a leadership style that goes beyond the obvious and they don't assume they know all the answers. They don't just guess to see if it will work. And they show a responsibility to the overall, not just to solving a narrow problem.

Try it yourself. When your team has concluded a problem study and has a solution in hand, take the extra time to test your brains and uncover and manage "unintended consequences".