Imagine you’re a leader with an important decision to make. Let’s say expenses are high and revenues are low so you can either (A) choose to cut back staff and improve your financial standing or you can (B) fall further and further in the hole. Which option will you choose?
Most of you reading this probably thought one option was better than the other. What if the best option however was neither?
Often as human beings we are conditioned to see only two options. We believe we must choose either option A or option B. And as we gravitate toward one option or the other we begin to see the option we choose as good and the other as bad. This is called binary thinking.
The best leaders I know think differently. While most of the world decides between two mutually exclusive options, the best leaders see the 999 other options available to them. They don’t settle for one or the other but instead find and create new options.
Who says in business you have to be either profitable or kind-hearted, purpose-driven or result-oriented, consistent or ever changing, stringent or flexible, ambitious or humble? Too many people see the business world this way.
The best leaders I know broaden their vision and see the myriad of other options around them. They don’t settle for one or the other but discover options that allow them to take the best from either side.
So to think like a leader, don’t settle for binary alternatives. Instead expand your thinking and broaden your perspective. Find the best of all options and create solutions that change the world!
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