experience and wisdom on the one hand, and fresh energy and innovation on the
other. Both sides stand to learn a great deal, advises Kets de Vries.
Leaders’ mistakes must not be swept under a thick, soft rug. And they do not
even have to be if there is a corporate culture that considers mistakes opportunities
for improvement, rather than something that no one is allowed to make, especially
not the boss. It must remain possible to call their choices into question. But they
certainly don’t have to step down because of minor violations, assuming their
overall strategy is right; they also have the right to fail and get back up again.
3.2.10 Leading Means Giving Orientation and Making Decisions
The age we live in does not leave us the choice between change and persistence,
between new and old. The change takes place, with or without us. If we do not
change, others do it for us. The problem is mainly the speed of the changes, which
continues to grow daily. I wonder: are we able to keep pace?
In just two generations, we have progressed from the horse-drawn carriage to the
space shuttle and there is more information in the Saturday edition of the Frank-
furter Allgemeine Zeitung than a man in the Middle Ages had to process in his
entire life. The Internet is becoming such a huge repository of data that neurologists
are already worried whether our hunter and collector brains are still able to process
this information. Amid the flood of news via e-mail, Internet, telephone, fax,
voicemail, videoconferencing, television, press and radio and the option of travel-
ling between Berlin, Hamburg, Tokyo and New York we are already at the limits
of our mental, spiritual and physical resilience – employees and managers alike.
(see Kets de Vries, p. 81 ff.)
Decisions are becoming increasingly complex, their impacts farther-reaching,
and it is impossible to have all the information that should be considered before
making a decision. A residual risk always remains. But how does a good manager
deal with this? How can he or she offer orientation and security in a world where
change is the only constant?
3.2.10.1 Dealing Confidently with Your Own Insecurity
Good managers are honest about their own insecurity and know how to use this
feeling. Quite different from the popular opinion: many leaders define uncertainty
as a weakness, which they would rather see in opponents than in themselves. Using
rhetoric, presentation and media training they seek to get rid of their uncertainty or
at least learn how to hide it professionally. This is not only impossible, but absurd.
Uncertainty is no weakness. On the contrary: many weak managers fail because
they too are certain – too certain to eventually realize how little they really can
predict, plan and manage.
178 3 Systemic Leadership or: Designing a World That Others Want to Be Part Of