Tag: know

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Great Leaders Don’t Pay You to Know

One of the worst things a leader can say to someone is “I pay you to know.”

Two consequences stand out:

  • You’ve told the people around you that curiosity is a waste of time
  • There are penalties for being wrong

No one wants to make a mistake.

When you are doing things that create impact, trying for perfection creates chaos.

One of the wisest things I’ve ever heard is the phrase “to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs.”

Creating is a messy business.  Eggs in the shell don’t look like an omelet. They have none of the value that omelet provides to a hungry person.

To get that wonderful breakfast, you have to get messy, involve a bunch of moving parts, and look a little silly (especially if you want it to look good :]).

When you say “I pay you to be right” you’re asking them to work with the egg in the shell and not explore. It’s a major handicap to look good and stay clean.

Don’t handicap your team in the name of your ego.

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Forward or Backward: Choose One

You can’t go forward and look backward at the same time.

There is a significant difference between forward and backward.

If you look back, you have to opportunity to see patterns. Since all of us are creatures of habit, discovering patterns is the first step to change.

If you go forward, you work to improving or emboldening those patterns.

When you try to do both at the same time, a problem occurs.

If you do, you heighten the chance of regret.

Regret doesn’t create lessons, only confusion.

Decide between backward and forward, and go.

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Don’t Let Work Give You a Place to Hide

Our brains crave focus.

With focus, our brains work faster and better. We have limited energy. Focus enhances it.

The question is, can we focus and think?

No. Brains do one thing at a time. Our brains function as single objects.

How does that tie into our month’s theme, hiding?

We can subconsciously work to hide from our thoughts.

That all-consuming feeling you get focusing on a project? It is useful when you don’t want to think. Going into “workaholic” mode causes the world to fall away.

That is why it’s important to ask yourself if the work matters and if you’ve given yourself time to think.

It’s easy to hide.

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I Trust That You Don’t Know

I used to think I knew a lot

I based my personality in “the know.”  I was proud. I built opinions on “knowing” things. I judged people on how “much they knew.” My religion was my perception of knowledge and I made sure you knew it. If you didn’t know anything then why were we talking. I needed to talk to people who were confident, and if you didn’t know you are scared since you didn’t pick a side.

I don’t think that way anymore. In fact, I go in the opposite direction. I am more impressed in what you don’t know. Anyone who tells me they don’t know something gains that much more credibility in my book, I am more apt to trust them, and get curious about who they are and what they do “know.”

What caused this change

Studying human psychology, philosophy  and management shifted my thinking. Spending time digging into Jiddu Kristamurti, Peter Drucker, and David McRaney, along with the ancients like Confucius, Socrates, and Seneca, got me to understand that the minute you think you know, you stop thinking.

One of my biggest influence in this line of thought is Robert Anton Wilson

In fact, the two thoughts (thinking and knowing)  are diametrically opposed. When you know you don’t question, and if you don’t question you don’t think. You can’t know a subject and think about it. Your brain has already created the model and the brain hates moving on from what it “knows.” Thinking takes a ton of energy, knowing doesn’t.

So why trust people who don’t know?

Saying you don’t know is a direct assault on the ego, and the starting point to think about every subject you don’t know about.  When I hear that, I get comfortable because I know that we can start to talk, and maybe an opinion can change. Talking to someone who knows is like talking to a brick wall. It may feel better to scream at that wall, but you aren’t going to change the form.

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