Eyes Wide Shut: A Story for Leaders
“Its your turn” accompanied by a rib-breaking jab to my side proved to be a sure antidote to any further sleep and left me in no doubt that to protest would be about as successful as Custer’s last stand. Arising from the fog of coma-like slumber when all the sane world is sleeping is never easy but doing so was aided by the knowledge that unless rapid progress in this direction was made, further collateral damage could be expected. As my mind and body desperately tried to find each other I locked onto the source of this intrusion into my sleep: Keegan’s cries of “Daddy, Daddy” were unmistakable as they were persistent. As I made my way to his room I wondered just how to ensure that in the future night calls could be rewired to “Mommy, Mommy” and “Daddy, Daddy” reserved for daylight saving only. Programming this kind of software into kids could make me a hero, a rich hero to millions of fathers all around the world I thought to myself; I would become a legend amongst men. Arrival at my destination curtailed any further development in this line of thought but I did undertake to return to this potentially ingenious plan.
“Daddy, there’s a lion in my room” was what I was greeted with as I popped my head around the door and instantly I understood why it was me that had been called to duty. Lion-tamer, Superdad, a life-threatening situation that required only the bravest of the brave…a job for Dad! A exhaustive search ensued, one that I might add Keegan watched wide-eyed from the safety of his bed interrupted only by him offering some suggestions that had me looking in places that no self-respecting man-eater would choose to hide – a pencil case for one.
Eventually, the search concluded I submitted my report: no lion, to a clearly doubtful client and turned to leave the room and return to the sleep that I had left there. It was as I turned off the light that I heard Keegan mutter to himself, “Of course there is a lion here, I see him every time I close my eyes”
Seeing what others see when they close their eyes is something leaders who know how to inspire vision and nurture dreamers need to be able to do.
Organizations need the dreamers, the fringe thinkers, the people who see things others don’t. It is often the case that these people are not an easy fit in organizations and one is tempted to wish life without them. Ricardo Semler in his book Maverick writes that every company should be paying someone to be looking out the window. To be taking in the big picture, to be surveying the landscape, to be dreaming as to what could be. Often leaders are under pressure to be this person, the person with their eyes wide shut. However this isn’t necessarily the best place for leaders but you do need to ensure someone is doing this and when their report is given and the lion spotted, the leader needs to be the one who declares loudly and clearly, “well why not!”
Such leaders are often known as visionaries.


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