We've been looking for somebody to take a central role in a new group. The search has been going on for over 6 months. A good chunk of the discussion around each candidate has focused on whether or not they had a well-developed leadership philosophy. None of them have. What's been even more bothersome to the hiring manager for this position is the lack of evidence that these people spent time thinking about what they want to accomplish as a leader. We've yet to talk to anybody with a vision and a plan for making that vision a reality.
My insight that I really just want to do those things that I find meaningful (or at least find ways to make what I need to do more meaningful) holds the seed for my leadership vision. I want to free people to get more meaning from their time in the lab. Everybody I work with has good ideas, they're just afraid to pursue those ideas. They think they need permission or choose not to act on their notion for fear that something bad will happen if everything doesn't go right the first time. There is far more meaning in working on your own ideas and solving a problem on your own than simply doing what somebody else has told you to do. Too many of the people I work with think of themselves as somebody else's hands. I want to get people working on their own ideas.
Working on your own ideas, even if it's just spending a few hours working through a minor issue, is the first step toward making a discovery. Trying something that may not work just as you would like is a small exploration. Embracing exploration requires embracing ambiguity. There is nobody around who knows the answer just waiting to bail you out. Getting comfortable with working on something when you don't know how it will turn out is very unsettling for most of us. Getting comfortable with that feeling of not knowing how things will turn out is an essential skill in my business. You have to be willing to accept what the data tell you and move on from there. You have to remove your ego from the process and simply follow the clues where they lead.
I want to make it safe for people to struggle. Better yet, I want to make people struggle. Every worthy research project will require some struggle. The struggle gives the work meaning. You have to pull from your own resources to resolve an ambiguous situation with no easy answer. It takes some practice to get comfortable with trying something, seeing how it works, taking what you can from that experience, and trying again. The only person you have to rely on is yourself. Every small step towards resolution of the problem is a meaning gusher. Every problem solved is the foundation for solving the next problem.
The solving cycle is where the organization benefits. Working on safe struggles, little side projects with no direct impact on a product launch, gets you ready for solving the problem that does have a direct impact on a product launch. The more you struggle, the more you want to struggle. The more you push back The Edge, the more you want to see how far back you can push it.The more you push, the better you get at pushing. The opportunity to struggle supplies meaning. Learning how to deal with the struggle provides value.
What do I mean when I said "working for myself" in the previous post? I want to find challenges and problems that give me a chance to struggle. I volunteered to lead a development project that had the right mix of challenges that make it appealing. One of the biggest aspects of this project was the fact that there were people who didn't think it could be done. That doubt of whether we could deliver was the most meaningful bit for me.
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