Leadership in Black and White

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. – Harold S. Geneen

As a photographer, there’s nothing I enjoy and appreciate more than the beauty of a black and white picture. When color disappears, distractions disappear with it. And it’s then that we begin to discover things that we might have missed otherwise. Black and white doesn’t necessarily give us less – sometimes it allows us to see more.

And that is one of the great challenges in leadership.

Leadership can be crowded with color: opinions, personalities, expectations, organizational politics, old traditions, and more. Sometimes as a leader, you need to switch the picture to black and white and ask what really matters here.

Here are a few essentials to understand, along with why they’re important.

Black and white reveals contrast

Without color, contrast becomes more important.

Light appears brighter because of the surrounding darkness. Shapes become recognizable because one tone stands against another.

Leadership also requires contrast.

There are times when a leader must distinguish between:

Principle and preference

Mission and method

Activity and accomplishment

Popularity and integrity

What feels good and what is right

Everything cannot have equal weight.

One of the responsibilities of leadership is helping people distinguish between what is good and what is essential.

Leadership Principle: Clarity begins when we learn to distinguish what matters from what merely demands our attention.

Black and white removes distractions

Color naturally attracts the eye. I get it. But when you remove it, we see the composition differently.

Leadership often needs the same discipline. Organizations accumulate ‘color” in a variety of ways:

Programs

Meetings

Processes

Preferences

Projects

Personalities

None of these are necessarily wrong. But collectively they can make it difficult to see the real picture.

Strong leaders repeatedly ask:

If we removed everything that was distracting us, what would remain?

What is our mission?

Who are we trying to serve?

What are we actually trying to accomplish?

What deserves our best energy?

Leadership Principle: Leadership isn’t always about adding something new. Sometimes leadership is about knowing what to remove.

So the next time someone says to you that you just see everything in black and white, think about this lesson and remember that it can be a good thing. It opens up a whole new way of looking at the challenges that you face as a leader.

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