One area of interest for me has always been on words in different languages that have no direct translation into English. This has come back for me from my week on Bute at the Craigberoch Decelerator with people from many countries, several of whom have lived in multiple countries and speak numerous languages.
I then saw this email from Gaping Void with this gorgeous Hugh Mcleod artwork, man except here:
In Roman times, marble sculptures were highly prized status objects.
Sure, they were expensive, but more than that, they were really hard to make. Every strike of the chisel had to be perfect.
But sometimes even the best sculptor would make a mistake. Sometimes he’d chip away the wrong piece, leaving an ugly ding.
Not great, sure, but not the end of the world. The artist would fill up the ding with a small piece of soft wax that had the same exact color as the marble, covering up the ding completely.
Sure, an expert could tell up close, but the average passer-by wouldn’t notice. Not ideal, but not a bad hack, either.
Of course, the statues *without* wax, being perfect, would command a much higher price and confer a lot more status on the owner, than the ones *with* the wax.
Which meant if you wanted something really fancy, you’d order your statue “Without Wax”- Sine Cera- “Sine (without) Cera (wax)” in Latin.
Which yes, is where we get the word “sincere” from. Without wax. Someone or something without any of the fake bits.
Leadership sin cera is therefore sincere and authentic above all.
My own model for WHAT leadership is now is called Open Leadership, where being Open and Humble is the “Sin Cera” focus, and being Brave and Hungry brings the passion, desire, and commitment for massive change and impact. Combine these with the WHY of the scale for impact model here and the contextual HOW of Cascading Leadership and this is my three-part formula for leadership for today and tomorrow.
