I’m continuing my series on an in-depth look at a wonderful little book that’s twenty years old this year. Management of the Absurd by Richard Farson. You may want to consider dropping back and reading the previous blogs about ABSURD! I think it will put each new one in great context.
One tag line that I’ve always lived by since I started my consulting business is “I only work with companies that want to be helped.” I guess I learned early that I can’t teach anyone anything, I can only help them learn. If they’re not interested in learning, I will never be effective at teaching them anything. In fact, it’s always amazed me that the companies and individual leaders that look like they need very little help are always the ones that will dig the deepest into the learning in order to improve in any way they can.
Our author really clarifies this with a couple of statements. “Deeply troubled companies don’t usually seek help. And when they do, they have a hard time benefiting from it. The situation parallels one in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is usually ineffective for severely mentally ill people; it works better for well people. The healthier you are psychologically, or the less you may seem to need to change, the more you can change.”
This statement reflects exactly what I’ve seen consistently over decades of consulting work. The healthiest leaders with the greatest self-esteem (comfortable with who they are) are the ones that want to learn and improve the most.
Farson goes on to state “The consultant’s essential role is to hold up a mirror to the organization, reflecting the processes that may be limiting its growth. As might be expected, the most critical issues center around leadership, not performance down the line. Small wonder, then, that leaders of troubled companies tend to shy away from calling in consultants. They know that they will have to do some serious self-examination.”
Daniel Goleman wrote his Emotional Intelligence many years ago. While there’s never been any correlation found between IQ and success, there is almost complete correlation between EQ (Emotional Quotient) and success. At the base of your Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Quotient is self-awareness. And more interesting is that self-awareness can’t be fully understand simply from within yourself. Self-awareness requires feedback. Are you open to feedback? Without it you’re not even going to be self-aware enough to even know you need help or to seek out the help you need.
