Leaders DO Not React – Using Red Flags to Prevent Leadership Failures

There are only two things make leaders react: guilt (grief) from the past or fear of the future. In the present neither exist. A leader never reacts. If they react they are in fear or guilt. Either of which destroys trust. The only thing that triggers leaders to be in reaction is one of those two. Otherwise, in leadership there is no need for emotion, just action. For example: to fix problem then solve a problem and have another coffee or herbal tea. However, reaction makes one problem into two problems: one is the original problem that needs a fix, which, without emotion is usually easy, and second is putting out the fire which is the result of the reaction in emotion which starts a fire amongst people, hence another problem that needs fixing. This fire becomes the bigger problem – a human emotional problem that didn’t help solve the first problem and now creates the need for smoochy moochy emotional interactions that are completely distracting from the solution to the next problem to which the reactive leader turns into two more. Sounds like the spread of covid right? Well that’s exactly why some people who keep their cool and don’t get emotionally tangled up in ridiculous levels of social interaction get more done and can scale their leadership and others spend 90% of their time trying to shmooze people into action. Red flags are pre- reaction warnings. Stay cool – reaction adds problem. You don’t need two problems. One is enough. A well balanced individual who leads offers friends and family a red flag. If they are getting grumpy one of their children might bring it out and place it on the table. If they are talking about work too much at home, their partner has the work red flag. If they are getting stressed, a friend might hold a red flag. I really think doing this with real red flags makes the early warning a fun and friendly act.