Jim Collins— Good to Great, Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith)

Confront the brutal facts of your current situation.

When you start with an honest and diligent effort to determine the truth of your situation, the right decisions often become self-evident. It is impossible to make good decisions without infusing the entire process with an honest confrontation of the brutal facts.

Creating a climate where the truth is heard involves four basic practices:
1) Lead with questions, not answers.
2) Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion.
3) Conduct autopsies, without blame.
4) Build red flag mechanisms that turn information into information that cannot be ignored.

Indeed, for those of you with a strong, charismatic personality, it is worthwhile to consider the idea that charisma can be as much a liability as an asset. Your strength of personality can sow the seeds of problems, when people filter the brutal facts from you. You can overcome the liabilities of having charisma, but it does require conscious attention.

Yes, leadership is about vision. But leadership is equally about creating a climate where the truth is heard and the brutal facts confronted. There's a huge difference between the opportunity to "have your say" and the opportunity to be heard. Great leaders understand this distinction, creating a culture wherein people had a tremendous opportunity to be heard, and ultimately, for the truth to be heard.

Leading from good to great does not mean coming up with the answers and then motivating everyone to follow your messianic vision. It means having the humility to grasp the fact that you do not yet understand enough to have the answers and then to ask the questions that will lead to the best possible insights.

** The Stockdale Paradox**:

Retain faith that you will prevail in the end regardless of the difficulties.
AND at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality.

Spending time and energy trying to "motivate" people is a waste of time and effort. The real question is not, "How do we motivate our people?" If you have the right people, they will be self-motivated. The key is to not de-motivate them. One of the primary ways to de-motivate people is to ignore the brutal facts of reality.