Softness

Are you tough enough … to be soft?

Last month’s message emphasized the importance of being tough especially when pursuing great opportunities or confronting significant adversity. But too much toughness can lead to a narrow and inflexible perspective that creates more problems and difficulties than it resolves. Although toughness surely is a prerequisite for competitive performance at the highest levels, when over-used, like any strength, it becomes a weakness.

• A leader who has great power but does not exercise it selectively becomes a tyrant.

• A teacher who has great intelligence but dismisses new ideas becomes an ideologue.

• A student who has great education but lacks understanding remains a novice.

• A boss who talks too much and listens too little becomes a bully.

• An investor who has great wealth but loses great friendships becomes a miser.

• An athlete who builds great strength but loses flexibility risks injury.

Naturalists know trees have powerful root systems that enable them to bend and sway in the wind rather than snap. Martial artists know it is more powerful to be flexible than to be rigid. Tough people know it can be healthy, effective and rewarding to be soft from time to time.

Are you tough enough … to be soft?

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To read my entire April message for leaders, please see www.irislearning.com/messagero/07Apr25.htm

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