Two Types of Leaders

There are two types of leaders in this world.

OK, I'll bet there are a lot more than two, but for our purposes, let's say there are two.

When someone comes forward with a new idea, some new opportunity that has some benefit to the firm or to your field of interest or to society in general, and it's something outside the norm, then there ARE two types of leaders: those who figure out why you CAN'T do something, and those who figure out why you CAN.

If we've surrounded ourselves with Creatives, we need to consider that they're going to be, you know, creative. So every now and then they're going to come up with ideas that are different from what you've done in the past. That's the nature of a creative industry. If you want things done the same every day, you need a bureaucratic structure and you need to avoid hiring Creatives. If that's what you need, then go for it, but if you've agreed your industry demands creativity, then that's what you'll get.

When employees bring you something new to try, you've got a decision to make. Ideally, you have a lot of experience, know the history of your firm and the industry, understand the laws, are familiar with corporate polices, and in general, are omniscient (remember, we said "ideally"). Given that knowledge and understanding you can decide whether to proceed.

There are many leaders -- too many -- who will go through that knowledge and look through the policies and come up with plenty of reasons why it can't work. Some of them may be based solely on opinion, others may be in black and white in corporate manuals. They are specifically looking for a reason why it can't be done. Maybe they're just covering their asses or maybe they think they're protecting the company or maybe they're just too lazy to do anything else. After all, if they let you try something, it might increase their workload. Or, someone above them might not like it, so the easiest solution is to just say no.

But there are other leaders who recognize the worth of that suggestion and who will find a way to make it happen. They, too, can look through the books and find a reason they can't do something. But they'll go a step further and find a justification for why they can. Very often corporate policies may conflict, with one section allowing something and another disallowing it. The trick for this kind of leader is to actually do the research and do some thinking about how something can work...chances are that this leader will make something positive happen.

This sort of thing is common in the military. With so many regulations out there it's inevitable that there'll be some overlap, with Army Regulation XXX.XX saying you can't do something and Army Regulation YYY.YY providing an opportunity. The military is a bureaucracy, of course, at least in peacetime, and when you're controlling hundreds of thousands of people and using taxpayer money, perhaps you should err on the side of commonality.

But a business can't afford that, because if you say "no," chances are one of your competitors is saying "yes," and they won't just steal your customers, they may just steal your employee, too. Sure , maybe the answer has to be "no," but don't go into it with that as your goal. See if it's possible to say "yes" before turning someone down.

Larry Page was recently interviewed in Fortune magazine and he bemoaned the fact that so many people just seem naturally resistant to change. Larry is not resistant to change. He's also a co-founder of Google, which hasn't done too badly. So he might be worth listening to.

None of this is meant to suggest you should say "yes" to stupid ideas, or to something illegal. But it IS meant to suggest you shouldn't say "no" simply because of some arbitrary rule that might be contradicted by something else. If an idea sounds worthwhile, pursue it, see if you can make it happen. This is one time when being a "yes man" is OK.