“Business is simple, people are complex”
Those who know me hear me use this turn of phrase often. Perhaps business is not quite simple, but where it comes down to hard numbers, it can be complicated, but it is not complex.
What is the difference between complicated and complex?
Well, designing a massive piece of infrastructure (think Panama Canal, Hoover Dam, The Shard) is certainly not simple, but it is complicated rather than complex. It can be considered as a (large) number of constituent parts and issues to be addressed, each of which can be quantified, assessed, designed for. Humans, on the other hand, are complex. We cannot design rules, systems, processes for how people behave.
I love this. There is no set answer to being human, so there is not set answer to being a Leader. Learning to lead is a lifelong practice, a journey.
My own career began by qualifying as a Chartered Accountant. I was good at numbers, so that was a good place to start, I guess. I then spent about, oh, fifteen years dedicated to numbers and what could be measured. At a certain point though, I became progressively more passionate, obsessed even, with the unpredictability of human behaviour and how our choices impact the numbers. This has formed my work for around the last twenty years, though in essence I have always been fascinated more by the complex behaviour of people than the numbers, I was just good at numbers, so hey, accountancy was a good start to a career.
Now, “Leadership is about People. End of Story” is another favourite phrase I use over and over. It is that simple. Leaders lead people.
My work is with leaders who share my passion and obsession with people and how they behave. They are already thriving in their role, could even be objectively assessed as having made the leap from “good” to “great”. They have a mastery of the complicated, what drives the numbers. You could say that such facility with numbers, measurement, the “complicated” makes them “great” managers. They are also already at least “good” leaders.
What they also have, though, is hunger, curiosity, openness and bravery to look at their own leadership whilst all the while always learning about what makes humans “tick”. They are, as the image above and the linked article note, ready for what I call #OpenLeadership. When someone becomes practiced at #OpenLeadership, then they go not simply from “good” to “great”, but from great to the elite. It all starts with the choice to be brave, hungry, open and humble.
If this is you, I’d love to talk.