Leadership Principle #4: A Bias for Action

In one of many clever moments in Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll depicts Alice running hard but remaining in the same spot. Alice is both exhausted and exasperated. The Red Queen, lounging under a nearby tree, is amused.

Alice looked round her in great surprise. “Why, I do believe we’ve been under this tree the whole time! Everything’s just as it was!”

“Of course it is,” said the Queen, “what would you have it?”

"Well, in our country," said Alice," still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else—if you ran very fast for a long time as we've been doing."

"A slow sort of country!" says the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

The year was 1871, and in the Red Queen's Race, Lewis Carroll was alluding to an evolutionary theory of the time which proposed that organisms must constantly adapt and evolve to survive while pitted against ever-evolving opposing organisms in an ever-changing environment.

Sound familiar?

If the Red Queen was right about how fast we needed to adapt in the nineteenth century, what would she say today?

If you are a leader in today's environment, you may not find yourself responsible for the outcome of an ongoing evolutionary contest, but you will find yourself responsible for the outcome of a contest for the success, the trust, and the confidence of those who follow you in an ever-evolving, ever-changing environment.

And to prevail in that contest, you need to develop a bias for action.

A bias for action is a leadership instinct based on the belief that in order to decide, you have to learn, and in order to learn, you have to alter the status quo. 

A bias for action is a leadership instinct that mitigates decision paralysis and helps you avoid the endless pursuit of that one exquisite piece of information which seems to be all that stands between you and clarity. 

A bias for action is the recognition that, in our complex world, learning is active and iterative. We act, we assess, and we act again.

A bias for action is the recognition that facts are vulnerable and that speed matters in the Era of Digital Echoes. 

A bias for action won’t solve all of your leadership challenges, but it will energize your organization, keep you alert for both vulnerabilities and opportunities, and illuminate the often-hidden cost of inaction.

In the military we have a saying: “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” That’s a bias for action. 

About the Author: After forty-one years in military service, General Martin Dempsey retired as the nation’s highest-ranking military officer. He now lives in North Carolina where he is faculty at Duke University, sits on two nonprofit boards, plays a leadership role in the NBA, serves as chairman of USA Basketball, and develops leaders with Starfish Leadership.

General Dempsey is the co-author of Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership with New York Times bestselling author Ori Brafman. The book is set for release on March 6, 2018.

Follow General Dempsey on Twitter: @Martin_Dempsey

Visit at GeneralDempsey.com