The Final Leadership Trait: Truth
This blog has taken longer to write than the rest of the series and also happens to be the longest. Turns out, this trait proved to be the most challenging to talk about as it is perhaps the most controversial in today's society. That trait is truth.?
What is Truth?
Truth is defined as "the property of being in accord with fact or reality." Seems simple, but phrases like "true colors," "true north," "true blue," and "your truth" provide a window into the complexity wrapped up in this five-letter word.?
When dealing with something easily identifiable and measurable, this concept appears simple, but reality is not always so quickly agreed upon when new information clashes with preconceived notions. Knowledge, experience, and perspective come into play, which is oft why well-held beliefs can be so challenging to break down.?
Is the world flat, or is it round? It was around 500 B.C. that Pythagoras mathematically proved a spherical earth. Most didn't even pay mind to such a concept at the time. Several millennia later, Magellan circumnavigated the globe (1519), proving the earth was indeed a globe. Yet, people still doubted. It wasn't until Dec 30th, 1930, that the first images of the earth's curvature were released that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt the earth was indeed round. Yet, still today, some doubt.?
Determining the truth is not always self-evident, although most of the time, what we believe to be true is almost always self-evident to us. This tension builds as our conversations venture from more observable sciences into topics like people, relationships, emotions, values, and even complex business decisions:
Does this new candidate possess the qualities we hold dear in our culture? Was my motive in taking this job really in my family's best interest? Is this profitable decision an ethical concession? These are more complex questions that require a more introspective look into the concept of truth.
The Challenge of Truth
At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, we will use an extreme example to illustrate the challenge of objective truth. In history, enslaved people and enslavers experienced reality in dramatically different ways. I think we can all agree on that. Yet, while we would agree that their experiences and perspectives were understandably very different, that does not mean that there were multiple truths about the condition, policy, or institution of slavery. I hope we all agree that the truth about slavery is that it is unequivocally wrong; there is no room for interpretation.?
That notwithstanding, many in the past did argue that slavery was acceptable. So why, then, was there such disagreement? Why did some feel justified in perpetuating slavery while others fought against it? Why was the truth so hard to agree on at the time?
It came down to a competition of more complex and extensive ethical frameworks comprised of values, morals, and religious and political beliefs that formed the basis of the reality for those living at the time. In other words, the debate about the truth of slavery began much earlier than the debate itself; it began with competing worldviews.?
Foundations of Truth
Pangea spends much time on cross-cultural training with our staff on worldview. We believe it's essential to empathize with different or competing worldviews while being aware of our own. We do this because almost every situation involves an opaque set of observations about people, circumstances, and context from which we must use judgment in light of our biases or assumptions to discern what is most likely true.?
The underlying premise here is that there is an objective reality or truth, even if we can't see it through our biases or name it with absolute clarity. The truth may be up for debate, but it does not mean that the truth does not exist!
This way of thinking about the world contrasts with a more subjective worldview widespread in popular culture today. The phrase "your truth" puts vernacular to a postmodern philosophical perspective in which truth is constructed through personal experience rather than objective reality.?
In this system of thought, each person is responsible for naming their own truth independently of an objective standard or reality. The dramatist Harold Pinter summarizes this way of viewing reality by saying, "There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false."?
While Pangea sympathizes with this perspective, we reject its premise, at least for us in our vocational life. But before we argue for rejecting this relativistic worldview and embracing a different perspective let's explore why truth is vital in vocational life.?
The Importance of Truth
This has all been pretty philosophical so far. Does it even matter? We think so. Leaders identify a destination (vision) and set a course (strategy). Every journey begins with a starting point and plan, but we will fail to know where to go unless we have an accurate picture of where we are first.
By way of example, I think back on my military training: one of the first lessons my friend and now Pangea teammate Gabe and I encountered as young officers was land navigation. Orienteering is the art of learning to travel from point A to point B using only a map and a compass. Land navigation training begins with learning to read a map. Under the glow of red lights, instructors give young soldiers grid coordinates indicating their current position and waypoints they must find navigating the woods.?
The first lesson is literally: know where you are. If soldiers plot their starting point incorrectly, they cannot find the following points and will remain lost.
The same thing is true in leadership. We must begin leading others by first defining reality accurately, or at the very least, as accurate a version of the truth as we can determine in a given situation. The phrase "most accurate version of the truth" is important because we rarely have all the facts or perspectives necessary to name reality (where we are) with absolute certainty. The closer you are to reality, the closer you are to a significant breakthrough in solving the real problem
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Concrete examples where leaders must delineate truth are self-awareness, relational dynamics, and problem-solving. We often operate at such a breakneck speed, anxious to move through the minutiae, that we neglect to examine the starting point for decisions in our heads and hearts. Unexamined leaders make unexamined decisions, unaware of the subtle motives driving critical moves on the chessboard.?
Think back on significant moments in your leadership journey. Perhaps a time when you had to make a difficult decision. To what extent were you self-aware of your thoughts, feelings, and desires? Likewise, failure to name the reality of relationship tensions between individuals can lead to disastrous consequences. When we take the time to slow down and name a fundamental truth about what is going on between individuals and teams, we begin with a more accurate starting point, increasing the likelihood of success in subsequent decisions.
Finally, identifying what is true in problem-solving is the first logical step of fundamental problem-solving methodology. Even experienced and well-educated leaders are prone to "shoot from the hip" and begin solving problems before aptly identifying the correct problem to be solved.
Work in these areas–self-awareness, relationships, and problem-solving, begins with acknowledging that even when difficult to see, there is the truth we must name, acknowledge, and be willing to concede to.?
The Truth at Pangea
For the intents and purposes of what we are covering here, we will let go of all the domains in which truth can be debated and focus on what it means for us to lead ourselves and others with truth as a central value in our vocational sphere here at Pangea. How does Pangea expect its leaders to navigate complex conversations around the truth??
Unsurprisingly, what defines our truth is our core values and the other six of seven leadership traits. It is also why truth comes last of the traits; it is the accountability feature the rest of our core value framework rests on. We use this framework to navigate competing worldviews, ideologies, or perspectives, and we expect our leaders to acknowledge, embrace, and operate from this framework.
As a reminder, our five core values are people, service, strategy, vision, and zeal. Our core leadership traits are self-awareness, trust, patience, identity, compassion, initiative, and truth.
These values are a starting point for every leadership conversation at Pangea, naming the truth of what you think, feel, and desire—immediately followed by introspection and self-inquiry to discern if your truth is closely aligned with our values and leadership code.?
Pragmatically, this work is accomplished by asking the right questions at the outset of leadership in each of these areas.?
Regarding self-awareness, the right questions are:
In relationship management, the right questions are:
In problem-solving, the right questions are:?
Landing on Truth
This last concept regarding truth as integrity is vital in leadership because leaders who fail to embody the organization’s values compromise their integrity and can compromise the respect or trust required to align people to goals, especially in stressful circumstances. This is not to say you always agree with the status quo or management's prevailing opinion—quite the opposite. Truth is not always measured in mass appeal. Truth debated is always illuminating and sometimes course-correcting. We expect you to honor our values and preserve your integrity even when it's hard. We want your opinion, experience, and perspective. We also want you to concede to the truth when and if we find it.?
Truth is a fundamental aspect of leadership, critical for decision-making and effectiveness. As leaders, it is vital to define reality by accurately determining the truth in a given situation and avoiding overly-subjective perspectives. Leaders must be self-aware of their thoughts, feelings, and desires and be able to name the reality of tensions between individuals and teams. They must relentlessly seek to name reality in order to solve the right problems. By doing so, they can increase the likelihood of success in subsequent decisions and lead with truth as a central value.?
But make no mistake; the truth is not simply what we make it, or we are truly lost.
This is the final leadership trait we will explore and it wraps up this entire series! Check out how Truth maps to the other leadership traits and the fruit they produce together!