My great friend Andy and I were walking back from a conference recently in Johannesburg (that has got the self-ego-massage out of the way) when he asked “If you had a law named after you what would it be?” Well, always happy to oblige, I recalled the recent session where I had drawn delegates’ attention to the quotation from George Bernard Shaw in the attached image.

(Incidentally, it had never struck me that someone might ask for the ‘academic reference’ for the quotation-I was unable to help!)

Now when I talk about management and leadership, especially about the difference, it typically comes out as “management is about the status quo, leadership about change” or “management is about processes and systems, leadership about people”. Yet this quotation appears to offer a different insight. One in which managers find reasonable way to get things done within the current paradigm; they know the rules and boundaries and know how to operate within them. On the other hand, the leader sees advantage by going outside those rules and boundaries, or even the paradigm itself; they are challenging, they are creative and they can be unreasonable (from others’ perspectives) in their pursuit of change.

So, with huge acknowledgement to GBS and to Andy green for provoking this train of thought, I offer you my attempt at immortality:

Roberts’ Law

Managers act reasonably

Leaders act unreasonably

 

And, somewhat perversely, I suspect that successful leaders do it by appearing (if only to early adopters) to be reasonable. It’s all about perceived risk-another blog, another time-because what I regard as edgy but reasonable, the next person might consider outrageous. Our first task as leaders is surely to recruit a few followers, for without any followers we are not leaders. Each follower will have their own risk rationale and/or taste for adventure, based on their own experience and desires. In my unreasonableness, I must communicate with individual potential followers in a way that helps them understand why following me will help them.

Unless, of course, I want a bunch of gung ho adrenaline junkies-but in business that’s probably a recipe for anarchy and that is certainly no place for reasonable leaders!