In a recent presentation, Ron Heifetz (Harvard University) argued that the most common source of failure in leadership is that people diagnose adaptive problems as if they are technical problems. In other words, leaders too often see the difficult problems facing them as problems that can be solved using the techniques we have used in the past. He argues that leaders need to identify those parts of a problem that can be solved with the ‘technical’ knowledge we have built up in the past and those that need them to be adaptive, to admit that they they do not have all the answers.
Heifetz believes that many of the issues and challenges we are faced with on a daily basis sit beyond our technical knowledge and training - they require us to work in partnership with other professionals. However, we’re under pressure to restore equilibrium quickly, to treat the difficult problems as things that can be handled managerially. Heifetz contends that so much of leadership is really about holding people together in these situations where no individual knows the way forward.
Heifetz concluded by suggesting that “the best thing I can do for all of us is to bless our incompetence”. There is no way, he argued, that any of us as individuals can do justice to every problem we face or every child we have to teach. We need to get over the shame of our incompetence and engage much more collaboratively with our colleagues. We need a culture of taking risks, learning in an ongoing way about how to do what we do better. We need to ease up a little bit with ourselves and acknowledge more quickly when we are having difficulty. That way we would take corrective action more quickly and invite others in to help more quickly.