The Flawless Leadership Advantage

It’s an interesting mythology that assumes the state of our world reflects the state of our leadership.

It’s an old conversation, assigning the vast majority of responsibility for the world to a tiny minority of people. It is the source of endless stories of leadership credit and blame at the cost of everyone else’s innocence.

It’s possible we will transcend the current state of the world by questioning the assumptions of this mythology. A future distinct from the past would require and result in a shift from faith in leaders to faith in everyone.

We can accelerate this shift by making possible a shift from flawed to flawless leadership.

The ultimate flaw in leadership‒as in life‒is operating from assumptions. Assumptions are what we think is true, but we actually don’t yet know. Our mind forms assumptions as part of the millions of predictions it composes each second of our lives. In a flawless leadership model, we base our decisions, actions, and communications on questions, not assumptions.

We don’t assume what people are and are not capable of doing and learning. We find out. We don’t assume which ideas and questions are good and which are bad. We find out. We don’t assume what people need to be their best. We find out. We don’t assume what causes people to love and resist learning. We find out. We don’t assume why people do their best and worst together. We find out.

In flawless leadership, we operate from zero assumptions. The prime alternative to assuming is finding out. We find out what reality is through new conversations, research, and experiments. We operate from new questions rather than old assumptions, knowing that new results can only come from new questions, not old assumptions.

Leaders learn flawed leadership. They assume or discover that effective leaders have all the answers and ineffective leaders don’t. This encourages them to be assumption rather than question based. People who operate from questions often do so because they have had mentors who encouraged a mode flawless leadership model.

It is accurate to say that leaders who work from a flawless model are more disciplined and conscious than leaders who work from flawed models. It is inaccurate to assume they are essentially lazy or uncaring. People with flawed leadership have simply not yet learned what it means to work from a flawless model.

Flawless leadership is not necessarily a function of technical expertise, track records, academic degrees, or social class pedigrees. It is leading from the intelligence of wonder, curiosity, and awe. It is easily learnable and infinitely adaptable. It brings out the best in everyone in ways flawed leadership never could. It will be a vital ingredient in our best shared future possible.

Being flawless is much like working with shaping clay on a wheel where uncertainty is the norm.

The way we make sense of the uncertainty of the materials and process is through the discipline of discovering what’s possible by finding out rather than through assumptions. Assumptions show up in the immediate feedback of failed results.

It’s the same with leadership. Leadership is a relationship, not a position. Relationships are conversations. In flawless leadership, we shape conversations with a potter’s endless curiosity.