Doug Cartland's Four Minute Newsletter
Doug Cartland, Inc.10/12/2010
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One of my favorite songs was penned and sung by Joni Mitchell.  She released "Both Sides Now" in 1967 and what I particularly like is the honest uncertainty:

"I've looked at life from both sides now,
From win and lose, and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall.
I really don't know life at all."

She conveys the futility of knowing.  Even after much effort to know and much stress over knowing, no one ever really does know.  We simply muddle through doing the best we can in whatever light we believe we have.

I was reminded of these lyrics as I read from a collection of some of history's best quotes, short stories, essays, excerpts and poems.  They are gathered in a book called One Thousand Beautiful Things published in 1947.  In it is an essay by Judge Learned Hand in which he writes:  "The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it's right."

Certainty is dangerous and is the antithesis of freedom.  Because once someone knows for certain, it's no reach for them to assert that that truth must be true for everyone else too since it is, after all, the truth.  Gone then is freedom.

I've been around people who are certain.

I believe leaders should be made up of about ninety percent confidence and ten percent self-doubt.  Really...self-doubt is one of the vital character traits of one who wants to lead well, because:

Certainty shuts the ears and closes the mind.  Self-doubt listens.
Certainty doesn't look for ideas outside itself.  Self-doubt looks for the best ideas in others and is smarter for it.
Certainty carries the burden of always having to be right.  Self-doubt doesn't care who's right, only what's right.
Certainty is attention starved.  Self-doubt shares the glory.
Certainty's in a hurry.  Self-doubt ponders.
Certainty is stubborn.  Self-doubt is flexible.
Certainty dictates.  Self-doubt debates.
Certainty is narrow.  Self-doubt is wide open to all possibilities.
Certainty speaks.  Self-doubt converses.
When proven wrong, certainty defends.  Self-doubt adjusts.
Certainty cannot negotiate nor compromise.  Self-doubt sees the truth in another's argument.
Certainty is simple.  Self-doubt is complicated and stressful.
Certainty assumes.  Self-doubt can't afford to.
Certainty is petulant.  Self-doubt is mature.
Certainty is black and white.  Self-doubt is gray.
Certainty is easy.  Self-doubt takes effort.

Oh...I don't want my leader doubting him or her-self once they are at the podium.  Nope...once a decision is made, he or she has a duty to sell it.  And I don't want them moping in indecision because of self-doubt either.  I'm quite aware of how important confidence and decisiveness is to one's ability to lead effectively.

Give me that ten percent self-doubt, that's all.  Just ten percent.  Leaders must guard that ten percent like it's their most valuable treasure...because in many ways it is... and never lose it.

To lose self-doubt is to ignore your compass.  Self-doubt is your tether to reality and it proffers humility to the soul.  You simply do not know as much as you think you do.  I promise you, you don't.

I'm ninety percent sure of it. 

Till next week...

I'd love to hear from you. Reply to this email and let me know your thoughts.

Doug

Doug Cartland, President
Doug Cartland, Inc.

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