There’s an often cited tale of an elder and child, where the elder talks of two wolves that live within you. One wolf is good, and one evil. The young listener naively asks the elder which wolf survives, and the elder sagely replies, “The one you feed.” This serves as a poignant metaphor in leadership – between your Creative & Reactive selves, which one will YOU feed?
The concept of Creative & Reactive comes from the Leadership Circle Profile, a fantastic and insightful tool I use in my executive leadership coaching. In its richest form, LCP provides a leader with feedback and insights from themself, their peers, direct reports, leader, and other stakeholders. The report ranks the leader on a percentile basis against a robust database of other leaders across a multitude of dimensions, both in the Creative and Reactive spaces.
Reactive tendencies are often hard-wired in us from early childhood. They may be influenced by our family life, school or early work experiences. They come to life in 3 main dimensions: Complying, Protecting and Controlling. Complying often feels like a desire to please, play it safe or go with the flow. Protecting can show up as creating distance between ourself and others, or being overly critical of those around us. And Controlling can include that nagging drive to be perfect, to be “always on”, or to lead from an autocratic “my way or the highway” style.
At those exact moments when our people need us to be at our best, our Reactive tendencies short-circuit us.
The paradox for leaders is that these hard-wired, deeply rooted Reactive tendencies (which we all have!) get amplified under stress and pressure. At those exact moments when our people need us to be at our best, our Reactive tendencies short-circuit us. Although each tendency has an inherent gift, overuse usually results in softer leadership impact.
The beauty of LCP, and why I love using it with my coaching clients, is that we have choice. On the opposite side of the profile, our Creative Competencies reside. These include Relating, Self-awareness, Authenticity, Systems Awareness and Achieving. Relating is where our softer skills for meaningful connection or mentoring emerge. Self-awareness is where we find composure and balance as leaders. Authenticity is the courage to “tell it like it is.” Systems Awareness helps a leader see the big picture and connect the dots between tasks and teams. And Achieving, a neighbor and cousin to Controlling, is a more inspiring and constructive way of leading to deliver results.
Even in the descriptions, you can feel the energy shift. Leading from Reactive is just that – reactive, impulsive, and generally leads to short-term fixes. Leading from Creative is more inspiring, more measured, and more sustainable over time. Don’t just take my word for it. Data collected by Leadership Circle shows that leaders who score higher in Creative Competencies deliver better business results.
As a leader, you have both wolves within you – Creative and Reactive. They will both want to eat, and the Reactive wolf will get even hungrier under stress. The choice is yours – which wolf will YOU choose to feed?
