Best Advice

The best advice I ever received came from a team member who happened to be

a most valuable team member serving with me as my assistant director for matters

pertaining to futures, capabilities development, and integration. The advice came at a

critical time during an intense global telephonic conference call where I introduced a

unique approach, truth if you will, that would affect the entirety of our organizational

operations across the globe. The advice was short and to the point as he whispered,

“Sir, you don’t have to say anything, truth stands no matter what!” As I pondered what

he said, I discovered a new way of thinking about truth in decision-making. I call it

“synchronized truth.”

Isn’t it funny how often we think we have to say something because we think we

have something to say when, in fact, it is better to say nothing at that moment. People

who feel like they have to say something will light up, speak out, and burn out like a

bottle rocket on independence day. What happens is that people get wrapped around

their own potentially warped idealized truth that will do more damage than good relative

to decision-making as it affects the whole. Idealized truth is truth as one person sees it.

Synchronized truth is the truth that rises to the top based on all variables that will

endure the impact of a decision made. It moves one past the “truth as I see it” to

“truth as it really is.”

What my colleague was saying was, let the truth stand on its own merits and it

will rise to the top without you having to push it much like cream rising to the top of non-

homogenized milk. Synchronized truth is the authentic truth that rises to the top and

becomes the one authentic reality that informs all others. All other truths tend to

acquiesce and attach to the synchronized truth, hence the term synchronized.

Wise leaders, before making decisions or introducing new concepts, will always

look for the one genuine truth that all others can link with and produce a synchronized

truth around which all others find orbit. In order to receive the best advice, one must first

be willing to listen. How are you doing with that?