PATHFINDER OR REBEL?

A client commented to me the other day about the importance of recruiting people who share your values, and another one talked yesterday about how do you spot the leading edge of Change? These comments got me thinking.

I have always been something of a trailblazer both in my private and professional lives. I’m a keen walker and I’m the guy who has to navigate us round the route and find the car. At work I have always been interested in new ideas and I that is how I-Change was born. However, it is also true that in corporate life was sometimes regarded as a bit of maverick. They seemed to think I was good for something but they could never quite figure it out! I think those less kindly disposed towards me might even have seen as a bit of rebel.
I suspect the only real difference between a rebel and a pathfinder is how well you are able to use them. If you are able to harness those drives that they have to blaze new trails then they are gold-dust; if those energies are not well focused then they can be hard to handle and uncomfortable.

I suspect every organisation has people a bit like this… how well are you using yours? Perhaps the other more important question is that every label we stick on people usually is reversible and regardless of whether it is positive or negative side up, it is wrong. What we are seeing is the result of a trait properly (or improperly used). It is all very yin & yang when you think about it. The dark contains the light and vice versa. We need labels, they help keep us from going crazy, but they also mislead us almost every time. When you engage with someone, engage with the person, not you label.

“ A name is a label, and as soon as there is a label, the ideas disappear and out comes label-worship and label-bashing, and instead of living by a theme of ideas, people begin dying for labels… and the last thing the world needs is another religion.” Richard Bach

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 11:54 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.