The French writer Guy de Maupassant believed that the Eiffel Tower marred the beauty of Paris. The only way for him to not look at it and enjoy the beauty of the city of light was to regularly have lunch at the top of the tower.
The occasional escape from the usual behavior requires effort, but on the other side it brings freshness of a new view and increases the flexibility of the leader’s reaction.

Every trait that we possess has its opposite. Light has aspects of darkness within itself and vice versa. A leader who says he is always good and kind to people sees himself through a unilateral prism. His behavior is rigid and in business situations which require less politeness, a blockage occurs and therefore reduced efficiency.

“I’m just like that” is a sentence he repeats to himself like a mantra. The question is, what is he doing with the opposite? Since anger is unacceptable, such leader sometimes pushes it out of himself and “sews” it on someone from his environment. Then he wonders why is the boss angry at him?
Another possibility is that he keeps the unpleasant anger hidden in the basement with other monsters. Sometimes anger comes to the surface in the form of an explosive anger that bursts like thunder out of the sky in a meeting.

In times of great changes, the flexibility of a leader is particularly needed – moving on a scale from one opposite to another and searching for an adequate reaction in a given moment. In order to achieve this, a leader who “never” gets angry needs to explore the opposite pole of the scale, to turn on the light in that hidden part of himself and become more aware of his anger. To see what it is like in that place, to have lunch on the Eiffel Tower, to see Paris in a different way. Then he will not limit his capacities because he alienated a part of himself.

This step requires courage and work on oneself in order to accept those traits that we do not accept or are not accepted by society. A leader who works all the time and emphasizes his value may be looking for a part of himself that is lazy and does not want to work. The more he accepts his hidden opposite as a part of himself, he becomes more integrated, authentic and prepared for challenges that business brings.

(Published in Nedeljnik, July, 2022)