Are we being a Cactus

Hello and welcome to Leadership Sketches, our weekly reality check on Creative Leadership. Every week I want to share ideas and best practices about Creativity, Leadership and everything in between. We are on our 6th episode:

Are you being a Cactus?

There is no better way to approach this topic than this sentence, taken from a movie with Robert De Niro, Ronin:

Yeah, well, either you're part of the problem, or you're part of the solution, or you're just part of the landscape."

The more I think about it, the more this sentence seems to resonate with situations we experience every day. Especially the most challenging ones.

In today's newsletter, I want to talk about how a leader should behave in this challenging situation.

Spoiler! This involves:

1. Self-awareness
2. Proactivity
3. A framework

Let's start with self-awareness.?

A false myth

I don't think a leader always needs to be the one who, to quote the movie, "is part of the solution". However, the leader must be the enabler, the one who allows others to find themselves as "part of the solution".

To do this, their behavior must be proactive, one that questions and always puts themselves in question.

But, as we know, we are full of biases that hinder our clarity. Some feel more responsible for the problem than they actually are. Others, on the contrary, have lots of responsibilities but do not recognize them.

And this is where this simple framework comes in handy.

I call it the Cactus Framework.

Why Cactus?

Because the Cactus, more often than not, stays there silent, with its spikes "a simple element of the landscape," not even trying to be part of the problem.

It’s just there.

The Cactus Framework

The Cactus Framework works on these premises.

It consists of three questions to ask ourselves as we face a challenge.

"In what way am I part of the problem?"

→ write 3 to 5 "statements" that answer this question.

"In what way could I be part of the solution?"

→ write 3 to 5 "statements" that answer this question.

However, the issue is trickier here because we may not be able to be part of the solution NOW, but perhaps we could be in the future, and in this case, we should write 3 to 5 ways in which we could be part of the solution. Or recognize that we might need to simply be an enabler and move out of the way so that our team can find a solution.?

"In what way am I being a Cactus?"

→ write 3 to 5 "statements" that answer this question.

We should aim as much as possible to avoid simply being part of the landscape, acting like cactuses, spiky and defensive, although some time is inevitable. But it shouldn’t become a habit.?

That's all for today. As you can see, the framework is very simple. Before leaving, I would like to know:

Have you ever realized that you were a cactus?

What have you done in those situations?

Let me know in the comments and until the next sketch, don't forget, Inspire, Challenge & Disrupt.