As I tell my students, you can learn a lot of things in the classroom. But there are some things you’ll never learn in the classroom. Hopefully, this will fill some of the gaps:
The Whole Truth Is An Illusion – You will almost never know the whole truth, so don’t pretend that you do or that you will. Our perceptions of the world are clouded by our own subjectivity and by our interpretation of information. But this shouldn’t stop you from making a decision. Analysis paralysis is a term used to describe the situation where the deeper you dig into a topic the more questions you have. As a rule of thumb, don’t make decisions with only 10 percent of the available information – but don’t expect to have more than 75 percent before a timely decision is required. Most importantly, be humble in your decisions and opinions because of this fact, but stand by them until proven wrong by more information.
Great Ideas Are Nothing Without Execution – Great ideas without good execution get slaughtered in the market by ‘good enough’ ideas with great execution. There are plenty of examples of the same idea failing until properly executed such as Facebook when compared to earlier attempts such as Six Degrees and Friendster.
Intelligence Still Requires Experience – In school we compete against classmates that have generally the same level of experience. Thus, one’s intelligence plays a key role in academic performance. In the real world brilliance alone, especially in competitive situations, simply isn’t enough. The Dunning-Kruger effect, sometimes termed Illusory Superiority, tells us that the less competent we are in any given area (competence is driven by experience), the more likely we will rate ourselves as “better than average” in competency. This illusory superiority often drives bad decisions.
Not All Conflict Is Bad. We grow up being told not to argue with our teammates or peers but both scholars and practitioners agree that there are good and bad forms of conflict. The good conflict, known as cognitive conflict, is the healthy debate that teams participate in when determining what or why something should be done. It involves a wide range of perspectives and experiences and can help generate strategic options for growth.
Leadership Is About EQ not IQ – Evidence suggests that the most successful leaders have some minimum IQ. But IQ alone is not sufficient to be a successful leader. The greatest leaders have high emotional quotients, often considered a combination of social intelligence and emotional intelligence. Leadership is not about you. It’s about your teams. As a leader you need to check your ego at the door and worry more about your team’s welfare, performance, and improvement.
