Both-And Thinking
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Click here to view and download the Discussion Guide to utilize with your Group and/or Team over the next 12 months. The Guide and questions will be updated each month to reflect the TOTM concept.
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“Our leaders transform experience into wisdom and,
in turn, transform the cultures of their organizations.”
Warren Bennis, Page 145, On Becoming A Leader
As the extraordinary roaring 20s of this century continue to unfold, developing a leadership mindset is crucial beyond measure. Effective leadership does not happen without the personal development of the leader themselves. Leadership is a matter of will, the will to grow first, go first, and put others first. Management legend Peter Drucker once said, ‘The only things that happen naturally in organizations are friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else takes leadership.’
Effective leaders are willing to spend the requisite amount of time in self-reflection for the purpose of assessing and evaluating how they may be and become more effective. The groundwork of effective leadership happens in the head and heart of a leader. This month we are exploring the concept of developing a both-and mindset versus holding onto an unproductive either-or mindset, and how to gain experience that transfers and translates into wisdom.
F. Scott Fitzgerald stated, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing views in one’s mind and still retain the ability to function.” Developing a leadership mindset means putting ourselves to test by engaging in experiences that require us to enlarge our thinking.
Jim Collins, author of Built To Last, expands on the genius of “and” versus the tyranny of “or” beautifully and writer Tom Collins summarizes Jim Collins’ insights on both-and thinking:
“Builders of greatness reject the "Tyranny of the OR" and embrace the "Genius of the AND." They embrace both extremes across a number of dimensions at the same time—purpose AND profit, continuity AND change, freedom AND responsibility, discipline AND creativity, humility AND will, empirical analysis AND decisive action.”
Fernando Gros shares “Either-or can also be understood in the construct of binary thinking: presenting a choice between two ideas, A or B, when there's another choice, C, and maybe D and E as well. In order to arrive at either-or, you must bring into play some logical sleight of hand, leaving out alternatives and disengaging from possibilities thinking thus possibly shutting down effective options and feedback from colleagues.” While either-or thinking creates tunnel vision, both-and thinking broadens our view from wherever we stand and enables us to see, hear and view more options and opportunities around us (check out Wendy Leggett’s article here to read more about her application both-and thinking in coaching).
Yet here is where a significant piece of our challenge lies. As Warren indicates in his list comparing management thinking and behavior with leadership thinking and behavior, we are taught and trained to manage however, we must learn to lead. The irony with many individuals in leadership roles is they tend to be highly qualified subject matter experts with above average intellectual capacity and self-motivation. Our human tendency then is to project our perspective and expectations onto others thinking they should respond with like capacity, self-direction, and self-motivation.
There is little benefit in fighting an either-or war, there will be significant relational and transactional casualties. Collaboration cannot occur in an either-or environment. Either-or thinking creates winners or losers. You are either for me or against me. You support the project, or you don’t. Either-or thinking creates relational aggression and roadblocks to problem solving and erodes trust.
Indications that a Leader Manager may be engaging in either-or thinking to the detriment of themselves and others can be:
· Detachment from Team Members or involvement in collaboration groups
· Communication breakdowns requiring mediation or third-party intervention
· Repeated instances of direct or in-direct conflict with others in the workplace
In extreme cases, a leader may impose ultimatums on others and will refuse to communicate with, or work with other members of their team. When that situation occurs, it is a tragic failure of leadership and challenging at best to restore individuals and teams to high performing status.
The both-and thinking approach can allow a Leader Manager to hold fast, but not too fast, to one’s ideas, perspectives, preferences, and beliefs while developing the ability to allow others to be heard, gain insight into their perspective and dialogue in meaningful ways to arrive at solutions without creating conflict and without aggression. The Harvard Business Review published an excellent article on the challenges of either-or thinking and addresses our thought biases.
Both-and thinking means we have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Sometimes that discomfort will be within ourselves as leaders and in other instances, the source of the discomfort will emanate from the interactions with those around us in the workplace, whether the CEO, a peer, or our direct leader manager. We can both act with a sense of urgency and extend patience.
There is the messy middle we find ourselves in when we need to deliver services and products to Clients and Customers in a timely matter and informally coach a colleague in real time by providing feedback when there is underperformance or engagement in self-limiting behavior. This tension between management/performance and leadership/development is where Leader Managers live each day. All human beings are both thinking and feeling creatures. We are not exclusively all feeling or all thinking.
When we take a moment to think about living in/with a both-and-mindset, it truly is the reality of life. You and I can be young and old, rich, and poor, a master and an apprentice at the very same time.
As you consider ways to practice expanding your capacity and both/and thinking, challenge yourself to engage in healthy, helpful, and appropriate experiences that may cause personal discomfort. This is certain to result in greater levels of leadership effectiveness and outcomes.
From engaging in a dialogue with someone who holds a different perspective to engaging in a formal learning opportunity to committing to an intentional discipline – these are small yet perspective changing ways to shift our mindset.
Use the questions this month to surface the opportunities and challenges of expanding your own both-and thinking and framework. Remember both-and thinking is a choice, and requires conscious emotional, psychological, and intellectual intentionality to achieve the leadership mindset of both-and thinking.
Bennis writes, “There is magic in experience as well as wisdom. Crisis is so often the crucible in which leaders are formed.” Don’t wait for a crisis to occur to take steps to gain the experience to help you develop your leadership mindset and effectiveness. Act now to grow first, go first, and put others first.
-LS
Group Discussion Guide
Click here to view and download the Discussion Guide to utilize with your Group and/or Team over the next 12 months. The Guide and questions will be updated eac
Recommended Quarterly Reading
2022
Managing From The Inside Out
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