Reboot summary

Sometimes, in the middle of a successful career, something comes along and turns everything on its head. Our company falters. We’re fired by the board. The investors pull the funding. But in the midst of such crisis, true leadership qualities can be born.

Just consider the case of a good friend of the author, Chad Dickerson, the former CEO of the e-commerce website Etsy. When Etsy’s board fired him, rather than sinking into depression and inactivity, he continued to work late into the night during his few remaining weeks at the company, looking out for his colleagues and making sure that company data was correct. He remained as solidly reliable as he always had been.

We often feel uncomfortable if we’re not getting on with something – answering the next email, developing a new project, looking for promotion. We go on like this, day after day, in a blur of activity. But then we can lose track of who we are, and why we’re doing what we do.

Often we rush ahead, from one thing to the next, to escape something. 

Think of those times when a lie – a white one, or worse – has caught up with you and made you wish the earth would just swallow you then and there. What you learn is that at some point – often when we’re least expecting it – the lie will wind its way toward you. You learn the hard way that it is better to be truthful.

As a leader, you should always be comfortable with the truth. Think of those stories of corporate malfeasance – like VW’s infamous cover-up of diesel emissions, in which the company deceived emissions regulators about their vehicles. Think of those times corporate leadership told employees, investors and government a complicated web of lies. 

Remember those arguments in which you’re hollering at your partner, parent or sibling, and then, in the midst of it, both of you simply burst out laughing? You both know how silly and irrational the whole thing is. 

Well, irrationality doesn’t stop there. 

Sometimes life is all set out: success, a family, a beautiful house. But then – crash – we find that this isn’t enough. The life we’ve carefully made, with its routine and certainties, has stifled us.

So how do we find ourselves again? We need to embrace not-knowing.

We all go through life plagued by doubt. We may constantly believe we lack our colleagues’ admiration or think we’re underachieving. But what can we do about it?

First, we must learn to embrace our personal Crow.

Think of the CEO whose fearful presence makes employees shrink in their chairs, stop chewing gum, take their feet off the desks. These might be the heroes of Hollywood movies, but what if we’ve outgrown this leadership style?

Let’s consider an alternative. What if, rather than inspiring fear, leaders created a space where others on their team could open up and grow?