Be a boat, not a rock

“A leader should be like a boat, not a stone” - Dillon Weyer

You know you’re a lucky fish when you get to work with people like Dillon Weyer. He walks up to my desk yesterday and casually blurts out this metaphor.

We stare at him blankly. He stares at us back. Is this a staring contest? I don’t think so. “I’m testing my metaphor” he says. Okay. More silence.

Eventually I say “Let’s think, how is a boat different from a rock?” Here is what we came up with:

1. Boats float, rocks sink

Leaders are able to “rise above the stuff”. The stuff can be lots of things: Noise, the tyranny of the urgent, all kinds of trouble, office politics, complexity, ambiguity, burnout etc. 

Leaders are able to go up a level to get a birds eye view. They are able to take a step back and see the wood for the trees. (I see we ended up at metaphors again).

2. Boats move, rocks are stationary

Leaders are agile. They have a bias towards action.

They are willing to change themselves (growth mindset) and willing to change their teams (reshuffle, invest, train, coach etc).

They desire feedback on actions so they can take better actions to improve future outcomes. A leading dog is interested in new tricks. Rinse and repeat. (We‘re back at metaphors).

Thanks Dillon! A very cool conversation indeed!