Change toward the strong…

There’s an old saying that goes something like this – no good deed goes unpunished. The more you and I become ONE, distinct and deeply connected, the more likely we are to experience attacks from close range. As Friedman said, “self – differentiation always triggers sabotage.” BTL practice builds the strong and exposes the weak. Do you see where this is going, leader?

We don’t tend to prepare leaders for this aspect of leadership in most modern programs. We focus on building vision, strategy, team, and so on and so forth. At BTL, we’ve seen sabotage up close and very personally. We teach our clients to not only expect it, but sniff around for it. Sabotage is a systematic part of leadership. Normal leaders tendency when faced with this kinda crisis is to become less, not more. Typically when sabotage comes from closely held relationships, the sabotaged one ceases to do all that has gone into creating the stronger version of him/herself. This is the moment when the adaptation pattern goes against nature. Instead of adapting to strength and evolving to resist future attacks, we dissolve in the direction of the weak, wounded, and scared. Again, Master Friedman has a good word for the wise – “This is the moment when a leader is most likely to have a failure of nerve and experience a strong temptation to seek a quick fix.”

There are no quick fixes to a crisis close at hand. So, leader, when you find yourself in one of those moments where you are driving change in your system toward a new expression, a new market, or just a slightly new direction, expect the counter attack from within the troops even when they are all smiles and saying all the right things. Healthy systems are led by leaders with nerve. Change is inevitable. Change toward the strong not the weak. Good luck knowing which is which, leader. The best way to know is to stay out front while remaining deeply connected. Real. Hard. Work. No easy way. Good…