Leaders recognize that it is the picture that is important, not the lines.
Leaders learn that being immaculate and staying inside the lines can get them into more trouble than being too flexible.
Sometimes leadership is mixing colors to make something new. Sometimes leaders make a mess, then find their way out of it. Sometimes leading is using color in new ways just to see what you can find with a new approach.
Finding the colors you want in your picture, and the leadership you want to have, is more significant and more challenging than staying inside the lines. Your leadership may combine striking colors that create a vibrant picture, or peaceful colors that combine to refresh people.
Leaders need to discover the lines for themselves.
Leaders realize that it is the lines you discover for yourself that outline your picture.
Your picture may not be standing still. You may be making a picture of someone walking or running, full of motion and activity. Your picture may not have any lines at all.
You may decide that your leadership is not about the boundaries between things, the lines around the edges. You may decide that your leadership can reach beyond where other people have drawn the lines.
It is helpful to discover the lines so you do not trip over them, and so you can help people see beyond them.
Leaders see beyond the lines to the whole picture.
Leaders who inspire me see that people can get caught up in finding and defining the lines until they lose sight of the whole picture. People can forget their values and vision because they are so focused on the lines of their goals and objectives.
Leadership is reminding them of the whole picture by coloring outside the lines.
Where are the lines in your picture?
How does your leadership color outside the lines?
[Image by ReillyButler]
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