How well do you know yourself? How objective, really, are you about yourself? How rational is your assessment of yourself? How well do you understand what others think of you, how they perceive you, how you come across to them, what emotions and thoughts you trigger in them, what they say behind your back? How does your stress compare to that of others? Your compulsiveness? Your self-respect? Your rigidity? Your fear of authority? Are you a workaholic? How well do you assess others? Are you seduced by their words? Are you deceived by their manipulations of their own images? What do you think of them when they tell you what to think? Do you accept their explanations of themselves? Do you have the skill to see them as they really are? Can you predict their behavior under stress, or in very private circumstances? Can you fathom their true intentions, even those unknown to them? Can you plumb their secret thoughts? Do you see others with compassion? With detachment? With projections of your own issues? Which is it? Which should it be? In short, how in touch are you with your own reality as a human being and with the human reality of others?
“A realistic leader always responds to the facts,
for realism means to have no illusions.”
-Koestenbaum
This whole blog could be a list of questions. The essence of the Reality Strategy is to have no illusions. A realistic leader has a strong grasp of the facts – and comprehends themselves, their family and friends, their culture, their world, their place in the world, their workplace, their marketplace, their competitors. A realistic leader gains an accurate picture through direct contact and connection – they are present, and in touch.
There are four levels or tactics to the Strategy of Reality.
Reality – Professional Level: Meticulous attention to practical details, attending to the precise needs of your immediate and end customers
The essence of quality is attention to detail. A leader in hospitality who comprehends their target premium customer, has plans for scalable international expansion, and correlated financial growth, but does not have methodical processes in place for making sure the ashtrays are empty and the faucets do not leak will fail. At the professional level, a realistic leader is attentive and connected in a very real way to their customers needs.
Reality – Social Level: Commitment to obtain extensive information and maintain a stance of objectivity
Leaders who are realistic at the social level are well informed. The collect information from multiple sources, are aware of their world at all levels, and understand the impact of the changing world on their social circle. Realistic leader are constantly updating their skillset and keeping it relevant. They maintain objectivity when looking at data. A great book to increase a leader’s social level of realism is Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling. It is a book of statistics, lessons learned from the statistics, and what questions we should ask to maintain objectivity when statistics are presented. Wow, I just made an excellent book sound boring. Read it!
Reality – Psychological level: Relentless focus on survival
This tactic is the critical success factor for the strategy of reality, for no one can be a successful leader without a mind riveted on survival. It is a relentless focus on results, the rules of the game, and how the game is scored. “Business is an attitude — the attitude to be totally and fully in touch with the reality of the market and respond to it effectively and successfully.”
Jack Welch, once the CEO of General Electric, overall philosophy of leadership has gone out of style, but regarding his focus on survival, his strategy of realism was spot on:
- Face reality as it is, not as it was, or as you wish it were.
- Be candid with everyone.
- Don’t manage; lead.
- Change before you have to.
- If you don’t have the competitive advantage, don’t compete.
- Control your own destiny, or someone else will.
Also critical to this tactical “survival” level of the reality strategy is the leader’s first obligation to survive – “Take care of yourself.” The realistic leader takes care of their bodies, is in touch with one’s feelings, and takes care of those emotions. Simply put: you are a grownup; act like it.
Reality – Philosophical level: Direct contact and connection to ourselves, to others, and how others perceive ourselves
At the philosophical level, reality is to be connected, to be in touch as an insider and outsider. It is to be in touch with yourself. It means to be in touch with our connections with each other, and a very realistic perspective of how we are perceived by others. It is a direct connection with our connection to society and nature. A realistic leader understands where they start, and end, and at the boundary, what is the seen from the outside.
It is to be in touch with your dreams. Are your hopes and dreams guides, directions, tendencies, trends, or merely illusions? What matters is that they should have a direct line of connection with the reality of your here-and-now. Presence means to be in touch with one’s feelings, hopes, and fears. That is the philosophic level of reality as a leadership strategy.