“In business, as in art, it is easy to invent unnecessary obstructions that shroud the truth in layers of context. We over-complicate our communication. We over-engineer our strategic plans. We become better at creating systems than speaking truth.
We’ve forgotten that the best art, and often the best leadership, is as much the product of cutting as it is of creating—to cut off, after all, is the etymological root of the word decide.
To remove obstructions requires practicing a style of leadership that resembles the work of an editor. If creative leadership is about exploring many possibilities, editorial leadership is about wayfinding within narrow constraints. This leadership is rarely trumpeted because it is often painstaking and divisive, but the rewards of the editor, when all the reducing and chiseling is done, is the resonance that only comes from the unvarnished truth.”
Insight from Banks Benitez, in his exceptional monthly newsletter, The Insider.