Leadership, Strategic Thinking & The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

It is beyond doubt that Stieg Larsson's trilogy has been an international hit.

While millions of readers continue to devour the words that describe the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s daring analytical/creative approach to human complexity, I wonder how many of us readers would tolerate a Lisbeth Slander in our business or social midst?

As Nobel Laureate José Saramago put it in his disturbing novel Seeing:

“The safest way of categorizing people is not by dividing them into the clever and the stupid, but into the clever and too clever … with the stupid we can do what we like … with the clever the trick is to get them onto our side, whereas the too clever even when they are on our side are intrinsically dangerous, they cant help it, the oddest thing is that in everything they do, they are constantly warning us to be wary of them, but , generally speaking, we pay no attention to the warnings and then have to face the consequences…”

True leaders think outside the box - How often do we dismiss those who present unwelcome or different viewpoints as 'negative'... 'out there'... 'crazy'... 'idealistic'?

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First published: 06 Jan. 2011