Pain and Paint Guns

In the Boulder edition of Craigslist last week was an ad for an actor with the capacity to withstand physical pain. Why would an actor need to withstand pain in a role? Because this actor will be portraying an investment banker. If that’s not enough to bring the wrath of the audience on the actor, there will also be paint guns – fully loaded and aimed at the actor.

The actor will have protective gear of course (which is more than the investment bankers from the major banks living on life-support right now had given to those of us now holding incredibly shrinking 401-Ks) but in this art performance piece is sure to take on some of the overflowing anger we feel at our shrinking economy.

How did common sense fail the executives of some of our biggest companies? How could they not see the folly in insuring your own losses, in attaching derivatives and poor mortgage risks and over-leveraged assets to their books without any plan for risk control when the cycle trended down?

Did they even factor in a down trend? We all should have seen the housing bubble bursting – it had been predicted prominently many places. What goes up MUST come down, with gravity AND with capitalism. Free market or not (and isn’t it interesting how so many free market economists have become practically socialistic in their grab for bail out money?)

High performance leaders keep an eye on risk at all times. Optimistic leaders know in their hearts (and in their minds) that every opportunity includes risks, and how you handle those risks determines the reach of your opportunity. If you go down in flames, will you take others with you? Will you take down the whole team, the whole division, the whole company, the whole economy?

Leadership requires a realistic clarity around future scenarios. Every strategic decision includes risks and effective leaders regard that risk with respect and a healthy dose of fear. Leaders need courage, but unless they balance their courage (and fearlessness) with clarity they are doomed to devastating surprises in their results.

I once had a boss who said “give me anything, but don’t ever surprise me.” Maybe those words had more meaning than I’d ever imagined.

Leadership Questions

What are you doing to assess your strategic risks with real clarity?

As a leader, what are you developing right now that will help your team recover from previous mistakes?

What is your strategy for dealing with mistakes?

How do you define clarity?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

(The paint gun goggle's image comes from the online catalogue at Paintball Discounters.)

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