Category: Openness

The Nature of Negative Assumptions

By neg­a­tive assump­tions, I mean beliefs that you or I might hold about oth­ers that label their char­ac­ter or motives in pejo­ra­tive ways. See­ing anoth­er per­son as weak, for exam­ple, or fun­da­men­tal­ly self­ish are exam­ples of neg­a­tive assump­tions.  Such con­clu­sions have a lot more pow­er than we might expect. For one thing, neg­a­tive assump­tions about… Con­tin­ue read­ing The Nature of Neg­a­tive Assumptions

The Connection Between Thinking and Behavior

It isn’t always so clear how our think­ing dri­ves our behav­ior.  Some time ago I found myself work­ing with a lead­er­ship client who I’ll give the fic­ti­tious name, Michael. I asked him dur­ing one of our con­ver­sa­tions: “Michael, how do you feel about work­ing with your col­league, Jeff?” “Oh, Jef­f’s okay,” he said to me,… Con­tin­ue read­ing The Con­nec­tion Between Think­ing and Behavior

Defensiveness is the Problem of Our Time

At a deep lev­el, self-reflec­­tion can be a bridge across trou­bled waters, a way to lib­er­ate our­selves from that most dam­ag­ing dis­ease to which lead­ers are prone – which is defen­sive­ness.  Defen­sive­ness is the instinct to pro­tect who and what we are.  While it is impor­tant to be able to defend one­self from unfair attacks, false nar­ra­tives, and… Con­tin­ue read­ing Defen­sive­ness is the Prob­lem of Our Time

The Leadership Cave

It’s a tru­ism old­er than the hills: lead­ers must at times make deci­sions that do not make oth­er peo­ple hap­py. Because such deci­sions involve con­fi­dence, sen­si­tiv­i­ty and the use of indi­vid­u­at­ed author­i­ty, the process may cause those who lead to come up against their biggest adver­sary — them­selves. Lone­ly at the top means mak­ing judg­ments… Con­tin­ue read­ing The Lead­er­ship Cave