What’s a leader to do after saying it all, repeatedly, in different ways, to different groups and different individuals? What’s a leader to do when there is nothing left to say?
Step back to lead forward.
Be quiet.
Listen.
Observe.
With your eyes, your ears, and your 6th intuitive sense.
Give your voice a rest.
What and where should you observe?
The side stage and off stage.
The periphery and the in-between places where you don’t usually look, where nothing apparent is happening.
Why?
Reason #1: You’ve been standing on and working center stage. From that vantage point it’s hard to see what’s happening at the periphery, and that may be exactly where the fires of change are beginning to burn. You just don’t know it – yet.
Reason #2: The psychological physics of groups (any unit greater than one) illuminates the second reason. When one person pushes hard for something to happen, others don’t push. They don’t need to. It’s a law of group physics. You, as leader, are doing all the pushing. A system will tolerate only so much pushing. When one person uses all the allotted tolerance, no one else can or will push. So stop pushing and step back to lead forward. Someone else will start to push. They’re probably ready on the side stage or off stage. You’ve been so busy pushing on center stage, you simply haven’t noticed them.
This is What Happens When You Step Back to Lead Forward
According to Governor Jerry Brown, the state of California is now out of the red ink and into the black.
What did Jerry Brown do to make this happen?
He took a step back to lead forward. Then he went off stage. Why? Governor Brown had been occupying center stage, pushing to raise taxes so the state could fund needed programs and balance the budget. All the while, elected officials were doing the standing-in-place dance, which results in no change. When Governor Brown looked to the side stage and off stage, he saw the voters were ready to push the tax issue. Brown then did what any California citizen can do. He went off stage, into the audience, so to speak, with a petition. He acquired enough signatures to raise Proposition 30, which increases the sales tax for everyone and income taxes on the wealthy. Californians voted to raises taxes on themselves. Brown stopped pushing and allowed the people to push for themselves. That’s the physics of it.
Where Do You Need to Step Back to Lead Forward?
Look around. What change are you trying to lead? Have you said enough? Have you pushed enough? What stage are you on? Who is off to the side, waiting for you to stop pushing so they can start.? Go there. Be quiet. Listen. Observe with your eyes and your ears and your 6th intuitive sense. Don’t push, so they can, and they will.