I stumbled across this quote, when I was reading Nancy Duarte’s book, “Resonate“, for the third or fourth time, and it resonated with me because of a conversation I had, just the other day, with a Japanese IT engineer.
He wanted his company to make a radical change from a proprietary operating system in its products to the international, open standard system that virtually all of its competitors had adopted.
When I suggested a few ways he could make and support his claim, he said that, while interesting, that was just not the way it was done in a Japanese corporation. He said it was safer and easier just to present slides loaded with the data and let the audience come to their own conclusions, rather than to make a clear and bold claim, even though that was what he thought his co-workers really needed to shake them out of their denial and inertia.
I’m sure he’s right – it is easier and safer not to take a stand – but is there any other area of business in which the easier and safer way is the best way?
It’s easier and safer to sit in your office and wait for people to call than to go out and beat the bushes for business. It’s easier and safer to make a “me too” product or provide a “me too” service than to stake out a unique niche in the market. It’s easier and safer to hire the person with the best resume and educational qualifications than to dive deeper and find employees who share your values, goals and visions.
Does anyone think those are the best ways to build a successful business?
It’s not easy or safe to stake out a position you believe in, build a persuasive case and present it with the passion, conviction and confidence to make change happen.
But that’s what leaders do.
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