Finesse or Force?

Finesse or Force?

Dan Rockwell (Leadership Freak) wrote a blog on titled “Identify your Point of Greatest Opportunity” https://leadershipfreak.blog/2013/07/19/identify-your-point-of-greatest-opportunity/

In the blog, he states “The door to achievement never opens kindly. It swings on reluctant hinges called resistance.” and his message is to push through resistance to achieve success.

 I agree, but the solution to resistance doesn’t always mean “get a bigger hammer”. Finesse is a useful tool to overcoming resistance. The situational and transformational leadership styles would argue that forcing your way is the opposite of success – you want to inspire others to your way, and they will make it THEIR way.

I flew Blackhawk helicopters in the Army, and I flew with a pilot named Patrick several times. The Blackhawk has a step that folds out of a compartment to allow you to climb on top to check the rotor during pre-flight. When you come back down, the step is usually wedged into the open position by the weight of someone stepping on it. Most people would swing the palm of their hand vigorously upward, striking the bottom of the step, and causing it to pivot back into the compartment in one fell swoop. Patrick, however, would gently rock the step back and forth, applying gentle upward pressure until the step became free, and then he purposely swung it into place. After observing this a couple of times, I realized there was little or no time savings doing it my way, so both ways were equal, but somehow his seemed better. I asked him about it, and he looked a bit startled, like he never noticed he was doing anything differently from others, but then he said, “I’m trusting this thing with my life – I’m going up into the air with it, so why would I want to damage it or treat it roughly?”  That moment was a turning point in my leadership style. I would still use force when appropriate, but I found finesse often worked just as well, and had the benefit of making people more comfortable in the process.

While resistance may be a point of opportunity, how you answer the knock of opportunity matters.

JP