Effective leaders not only recognise the unique strengths and weaknesses of others. They have sufficient self-awareness to recognise their own, personal strengths and weaknesses.
“Leaders know themselves; they know their strengths and mature them. They also have a faculty I think of as the Wallenda Factor. The flying Wallendas are perhaps the world’s greatest family of aerialists and tightrope walkers. I was fascinated when, in the early 1970s seventy-one-year-old Karl Wallenda said that for him living was walking the tightrope, and everything else was waiting. I was struck by his capacity for concentration on intention, the task, the decision. I was even more intrigued when, several months later, Wallenda fell to his death while walking a tightrope without a safety net between two high-rise buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Wallenda fell still clutching the balancing pole, he had warned his family never to drop lest it hurt somebody below. Later Wallenda’s wife said that before her husband had fallen, for the first time since she had known him he had been concentrating on falling, instead of on walking the tightrope. He had personally supervised the attachment of the guide wires, which he had never done before” – Warren Bennis, Why Leaders Can’t Lead
When we focus on our strengths it’s amazing how our weaknesses take care of themselves. Where is your focus? Is it on your areas of strength? Is it on what you want to create?
Technorati Tags: Strategy, Strengths, Weaknesses, Focus, Leadership, Management, Business
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It has been sometime since I read a passage and at the end said, “WOW!”
That has very powerful implications and could not be anymore true. It seems the universe moves to manifest the very things we think about, read about and talk about most.
Focus is just about the hardest task on anyones list these day. The instant gratification nation is pushing the edge each and everyday so much so that focus has become somewhat of a valuable commodity.
Great post. Thank you for taking the time.
Great post! I had read Bennis’s story about the Wallenda family before but it made as big an impression on me the second time around. Many leaders struggle with the discipline it takes to get into the “zone” because they are pulled in so many directions, distracted with paperwork, and consumed with details. And at the same time “hold on to the pole so no one gets hurt”? Not likely.