Won't you listen to what the man said (Paul McCartney)

Photo by Astrid Schaffner on Unsplash

Leadership is not easy. 

Actually, I'll rephrase: strong, effective leadership is not easy.

I guess, if it was - everyone would be doing it, right?

Dan Rockwell makes a great point about this when he says that leaders need to exude strength and be gentle enough to give in. In his words:

Fight for things you believe AND listen to others…AND change your mind when appropriate.

The trick is knowing when to fight, when to listen, when to reconsider.

A great fear for leaders is appearing weak and vulnerable - hence the urge when cornered to box on, not listen, and not rethink something.

Elon Musk is a good example, with his take over of Twitter becoming a case study in what not to do. Clearly, I am not privy to his mind and inner circle of advisors (does he even have any?) but on the surface he's made a right pig's ear of the takeover.

From outside, he looks like he acted quickly - far too quickly. I suspect he didn't listen to others and so he is needing to walk back some of his firings of  crucial Twitter staff. 

Thus, from the outside he looks weak, ineffectual, and even stupid. But clearly he's not amassed a huge fortune and gained weasel cunning over the years through being stupid.

But he sure looks like it now. Strong and effective leadership it sure isn't.

I pity the poor Twitter staff who he fired but now needs back desperately.

I am also really considering ending my Twitter account because of my low confidence in him as a leader. 

Twitter won't miss me, and I won't miss Twitter necessarily.