ABSTRACT
After a decade of identifying factors of effective leadership, three principles emerge as the foundation for exemplary practice that cultivate employee buy-in. The first is vigorously confronting reality. Anthony de Mello reminds us that every great idea starts with blasphemy. Bertrand Russell wrote that is why it is difficult to get buy-in to new ideas. Daniel Kahneman explains our brains operate on two systems, but mostly on System 1 where decisions are most frequently made because people favor the familiar. Linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson explain our brains specialize in analogy and metaphor which explains why credibility lies in the familiar. MIT thought leader Joseph Romm points to storytelling as an effective means to get people to focus on reality. Simply put, the message for leaders is to confront reality speak the truth. When events don’t go as planned, it may be because we must unlearn something that is no longer true. The best plan is to detect challenges early, like some entities did with COVID-19 that helped them confront the truth.
