DEAD. BUT RIGHT
The person I love most in the world jokes that on her tombstone will be the epitaph “She may be dead. But she was right”.
Then there’s that military line about “Is this the hill that you’re prepared to die on?”
Or there’s an exercise I remember from doing a course on “defensive driving”. We were asked to analyse a number of road accidents and then answer two questions:
1. Who caused the accident?
2. Who could have prevented the accident?
Spotting someone doing something dangerous on the road, do I just drive right on into them and make the accident happen? They’re wrong, for goodness sake. I’m clearly in the right here.
In which case, dead but right is exactly where I might end up.
And in the workplace?
A few recent conversations have shown me that there’s a balance to be found. That uncomfortable word “compromise” raises its head.
For instance, if the first time we spot something we disapprove of, we instantly “go legal”, we can find ourselves out of the firm very quickly before we’ve had any chance to maybe fix the problem. Dead (no job) but right (legally) very probably.
On the other hand, if we choose to stick around long enough to see if things can be improved, very often for the greater good, “alive and right” becomes an option. But only if we stick around.
There is a balance though. We also need to know when to quit. When we may indeed be right, but it’s beginning to look like a hill that we might die on. Or which might at any rate impact our health and that of those around us.
Another example. Believing strongly in the principle of empowerment, how long do you as a leader wait before stepping in when that delegated accountability is clearly not been taken up? Is empowerment such a strong principle for you that you’ll let the business suffer as a result? Is that a hill you’re prepared to die on?
We all have principles. But maybe it’s important to be prepared to compromise (that word again) on those principles from time to time, for a greater good.
So please don’t allow that car crash to happen.
Have a think. Are there places where your principles (pride? ego?) are actually standing in the way of you making a bigger difference.
Don’t be dead, but right.
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