Lead Outside the Box

Here is a factual truth: “Good can come from anything IF you honestly look for it.”

I found this to be the case when the horrors of the COVID-19 Pandemic

prevailed. While there are so many negative effects resulting from the pandemic with so

many losses and lingering hurts still to this day, I acknowledged, from a leadership

perspective, that this event forced the concept of “leading outside the box” into a

realized requirement for leaders.

The levels of discomfort the pandemic generated for “inside the box” thinkers and

doers were astronomical, but it did for these leaders what they couldn’t do for

themselves. It gave them no choice and forced them outside the box causing them to

move beyond the traditional “we’ve never done it that way” to a “how are we going to do

this” mindset and was a good thing for leaders because it provided a practical exercise

helping them truly understand what it means to lead “outside the box.”

Saying, “we need to think or lead outside the box” is so easy, but doing it is quite

another story. Truth is, no one likes being forced outside their comfort and convenience

zone, which is what “being in the box” is by nature, whether individually or

organizationally. Saying the words “outside the box” is a business buzzword function

that has about as much of an effect as hunting elephants with a BB rifle; “doing it” is a

maximized mining function to draw out the best in oneself and every other member of a

team or organization setting the conditions so that all can reach their highest level of

potential no matter the challenges.

Maximized mining will never occur “inside the box” because it is an act of freeing

oneself, or team, or organization to think and operate in a more expansive environment.

Leading from inside the box is like a dog chasing its own tail, exhausting massive

amounts of energy with a purpose, but not really going anywhere. What do we call it if

he catches his tail, a success, or an exercise in futility? Can you imagine a dog like that

trying to lead a dog team in the Alaskan Iditarod. It may surprise many to learn that

anything a leader allows to limit the expansion or development of one’s leadership

personhood--cognitive and sentient capability and capacity--is simply a choice to lead

from “inside the box.”

While it may offend some, but it is not my intent, becoming mired (operative term)

in personality profiles, or specific styles of leadership, or past persecutions, or individual

insecurities, or traditional ways of doing things, or any combination of these will limit any

leader’s or organization’s potential. These factors manipulate leaders causing many to

build “safe zones” from which to lead, better known as “inside the box” leadership, and

we all know what that kind of leadership looks like. Leadership “Outside the Box” is the

better choice, and it begins with you, the leader! How’s that working for you?