Foolish Leadership
The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice (Proverbs 12:15).
Leadership is about influence, relationships, real change, shared purpose, and doing the right thing. I agree with Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus that an important part of leadership is a set of skills “that can be learned by anyone, taught to everyone, and denied to no one.” (p. 25)
Learning to develop leadership skills is your responsibility. The ability to self-reflect on your behavior and then to marshal the courage to self-authorize continual change and improvement is the foundation of assuming full responsibility for yourself. As Chris Argyris correctly asserts, there are a lot of “smart” people that are unaware of their unwillingness and inability to learn.
Henry Cloud wisely states that “the fool tries to adjust the truth so he does not have to adjust to it.” (p. 133). Fools often surround themselves with other fools, which renders them unable to recognize and close their integrity gaps. Many leaders deceive themselves into thinking they are wise because they seek the trusted advice of carefully vetted advisers. Unfortunately, advisers that formulate and confirm their advice only with each other can never offer wise counsel.
Fools are reactive listeners. They have “open door” policies and claim to be ever available to answer our questions and concerns. Their feel-good approach to listening rarely leads to substantive learning. We learn very quickly that the orifice of the oracle leader is actually a black hole instead of a source of light.
The wise are proactive listeners that initiate the process of listening with their own questions about what needs to change and how to make things better. The wise are proficient meta-learners, continually improving their ability to know what they know and their capacity to understand how to use knowledge to change their behavior.
Does your leadership development reflect foolishness or wisdom? How do you know? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!
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About the Author: Bret L. Simmons
Welcome to my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section of my posts. I publish all constructive, non-anonymous comments. 
Great posts. I don’t disagree but your use of Cloud’s quote made me think of one from George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
February 2nd, 2012 at 5:04 pm
Love the quote, David. Thanks for sharing! Bret
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I would say mine represents wisdom. I’ve invested a great deal of time (and money) in my own personal development. Everything from peer coaching to one-on-one coaching and personal development workshops. I know many people that have also dedicated much of their time to learning and self-improvement.
Sometimes it’s easier to be a fool and ignore the truth out of fear, I hit it straight on and sometimes it’s rewarding and sometimes it’s humbling. Either way I take great pride in realizing that the more I know, the more I realize how much I don’t know and that’s what drives me.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
February 2nd, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Welcome, Jason. The wisest people we know understand your statement that the more you know, the more you realize you really have so much more to learn. Thanks for sharing! Bret
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Bret,
The Henry Cloud quote is so true. I’ve been a fool many, many, many times in my life due to not adjusting to the truth. Or I will adjust to it, but it takes a lot longer than it should. Sometimes it takes years.
Perhaps a good goal might be to limit the length of time of being a fool before adjusting to reality. The shorter the length of time, the wiser somebody is.
I really like the discussion of proactive listeners versus reactive listeners. I think most managers/leaders would say they listen to employees.
But do they really want to listen to them or are they just tolerating listening to them? I believe employees can usually tell the difference.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
February 3rd, 2012 at 12:18 am
The truth can be tough sometimes, Greg. I’m Ok with people taking time to adjust, as long as they keep heading in the right direction. We all learn at different paces and the only way to lose is to quit. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Bret
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I love the post. The thing that it touches on that I’ve been pondering for some time now is how we can’t know what we don’t know. I’ve found that I can become aware that I don’t know, and indirectly I can see what I don’t know, but if I don’t know it, I don’t know it. Throughout my own growth process, there’ve been many, many things that I’ve come to know that I couldn’t see from where I was before I knew it. It stands to reason that there are an infinite number of things that I don’t know now, in my current paradigm, or with my current view. The things I can see with bigger eyes, I couldn’t see when my eyes were smaller. It’s humbling. It’s maxwell’s “law of the lid”. It’s Abinger Institute’s “leadership and self deception”. It’s huge. I’m responsible for more of my reality than I think (I think!).
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
February 3rd, 2012 at 11:51 am
Welcome, Adam. Love your thoughts. I think the key is wanting to know, being motivated to expose and them work to close integrity gaps. We know a lot of folks that think they are already a finished product with no need for improvement. That attitude permeates their behavior, just as much as your hunger for the truth and continued growth permeates yours. Thanks for sharing! Bret
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Great post! You ask at the end how do you know whether your leadership is wise or foolish? Well, the foolish leader may lose his supporters when they see nothing come of his leadership. The foolish leader is in a position to make a positive impact, but fails to do so–so hopefully the followers are wise enough to withdraw support. After all, if the leader is a fool, and you follow the leader, what does that make you?
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
February 4th, 2012 at 8:23 pm
Great thoughts, Caitlin. Hopefully followers would take action if the leader behaves foolishly, but we’ve seen plenty of times when the do not. Thanks for sharing! Bret
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Great post. Again.
Sometimes, if I need to really get at this question with my clients I ask them to really consider how comfortable they are. I believe that if you are very comfortable, then those who should be speaking the truth to you in your environment aren’t doing their job and are pulling punches.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
February 27th, 2012 at 12:26 am
Excellent point, Clemens. Thanks for sharing! Bret
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