Leadership + Strength + Determination
These three words were the ones my father chose first to describe the superpowers that made him indispensable through his career and what inspired my latest drawing, the last one of the series from my dad’s interview.
I talked about his leadership and I dedicated a drawing with a story to “Servant leadership”, a leadership style that applies both internally with employees as well as externally with customers.
I have seen his strength in the creation of his ever changing map and the courage to navigate it overcoming adversity and always looking forward in search of progress.
His determination to make things happen and to do them with excellence is the last piece of his formula for success. And I cant avoid connecting “determination” to “confidence” and something that I recently listened from Adam Grant in “Think again” that would apply here as well.
“In theory confidence and competence go hand in hand, in practice, they often diverge. When confidence exceeds competence, we are blind to our weaknesses. This is call “the armchair quarterback syndrome”. The opposite of “the armchair quarterback syndrome” is “The impostor syndrome” where competence exceeds confidence. This is common in people that don't believe that they deserve their success. They are blind to their strengths. The ideal level of confidence probably lies between the “armchair quarterback syndrome” and “the impostor syndrome”.
I feel my father was well able to find that sweet spot. What Adam Grant calls “Confidence Humility”: Confidence that builds in time through achieving challenging goals and enough doubt from “the impostor syndrome” to stay humble to learn and update himself. This is a great example to welcome “The impostor syndrome” as fuel to do more, to try more. We are all partially blind, but what matters is to be committed to improving our sight.
From Adam Grant: “Arrogance leaves us blind to our weaknesses, humility is a reflective lens. It helps us see them clearly. Confidence humility is a corrective lens, it enable us to overcome those weaknesses”.
