How do you tackle a problem? How do you pursue an idea?
I don’t mean in the technical sense: breaking down a problem into its smallest parts, or most fundamental questions, doing market research, soliciting feedback, getting the right people in the room. Those are all good approaches, but not what I have in mind.
I mean attitudinally. What is your posture when you come up to a difficult situation or you intend to do or launch something new? That is, when you face a challenge, who do you become?
As I’ve thought about this question over the years, and have observed leaders I admire and those I take as cautionary tales, I’ve come to believe that there are two leadership archetypes when it comes to tackling a challenge: the bulldog, and the water.
The Bulldog Archetype
The Bulldog archetype, (full disclosure, my natural bent) has a kind of Churchillian swagger that says along with the former Prime Minister, “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense.”
The Bulldog takes obstacles as proof positive that the pursuit is worthwhile and that on the other side of the difficulty is that sunlit upland of sweet success. If it had a motto it might be, “Nothing worth doing is easy.”
It’s not too difficult to come up with leaders, or products, or ideas that struggled mightily to gain any kind of purchase or victory, but toiled in obscurity, and ultimately overcame the odds and shaped the world in profound ways. Here in west Michigan, the team at Founder’s Brewery come to mind—I’ve heard them describe themselves as an overnight success a decade in the making. That’s bulldog. When the Bulldog is convinced an idea can work, should work, must work, then he’ll hang on tooth and nail and solve the problem or get the project over the finish line. Or die in the attempt. (Probably not. But such is the drama of the bulldog. They expect sacrifice as table stakes.)
But there’s also water.
The Water Archetype
The Water archetype believes in going where the energy is. Water, of course, finds its level and will always travel downhill along the path of least resistance. It will carve canyons and turn boulders to sand over time, but it doesn’t need to break down barriers if it can simply flow around them. The Water takes it for granted that smart people quit things all the time to refocus themselves on ideas, problems, or opportunities that are more likely to lead to success. The sooner they can move on from things that aren’t working the sooner they can focus on that which will work.
The Water looks at resistance as important feedback that something isn’t working, and a change or pivot needs to happen. If it had a motto it might be, “Follow the energy.”
There’s an inherent flexibility with the Water archetype that allows them to pursue an idea or challenge without marrying themselves to the outcome. And again, it’s not too difficult to think of leaders and innovators who after trying their hands at a few ideas that didn’t succeed, took those experiences and parlayed them into a great career or new venture that did succeed and shape the world.
Bringing the Archetypes Together
These are crude archetypes–helpful insofar as they capture the big idea, but obviously they miss a lot of nuance.
But. Have you ever had the experience of looking across the table and thinking, “This person just isn’t committed. I don’t think they’re prepared to do what it takes.” (Hey there, Bulldog!) Or maybe, “This person is really stuck in their way of looking at things. I can’t believe we’re still talking about this problem.” (Hey-Oh, Water!)
Whichever way you lean temperamentally, I hope you can see that both approaches to challenges have their merits. And you’ll likely need to adopt a different posture depending on the nature of the challenge you’re facing, or at the very least invite leaders into the conversation who have a different natural bent than you as a way to bring balance and perspective.
Developing Your Discernment Chops
At some point, the question that every leader will face is: Do we keep going? Or is it time to flow?
In other words, do we need the Bulldog or the Water?
Next month, I’m going to bring you the perspectives of a couple leaders, asking them to unpack how they’ve developed the ability to discern what approach is required in a given situation.
In the meantime, drop a note in the comments and let me know which way you generally lean–bulldog or water–when it comes to a challenge, and how you’ve learned (or are learning) to discern what’s called for when facing a challenge.
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