Cocooned

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One of the most insidious ways that leaders get out of touch with reality is when they’re cocooned. When they distance themselves from their staff and live in an ivory tower – or a sanitized bubble. A cocoon that stifles growth, instead of providing sustenance.

It’s a subtle but perilous process. A kind of isolation that eventually renders a leader useless, helpless, inutile. A puppet king or queen.

How does this happen? This starts when a leader allows him/herself to be surrounded by handpicked people who are, first of all, compliant. People who are easily subjugated because their main goal is to protect their positions and interests.

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The danger here is double-edged. First, if you are cocooned by position, power or wealth, you can be easily manipulated by your very own cordon sanitaire.

You’ll get information only from the closed circle that cocoons you. You’ll get only the feedback they think you want to hear, or only feedback that pleases you. Or worse – they’ll give you only feedback that THEY want you to hear, to protect and push their own agendas.

So your decisions and perspectives will be largely determined by the filtered information and advice that you’re being given.

One of my definitions for Manipulation is this – it’s the art of giving filtered information at an opportune time.

So when you’re cocooned, you’ll digest only what you’re being fed. In the end, it’s your “caregivers” who’ll have power over you, who’ll run your life. Think Howard Hughes in his last days.

The second danger is, of course, the fact that you’ll lose the pulse of the people you’re working with, or the people you’re leading.

When you don’t give others (outside your inner circle) a chance to tell you what they think, or what’s really happening out there in the trenches, you’re going to eventually experience a power leak. A power hemorrhage. What you don’t know CAN and WILL hurt you.

Lastly, being cocooned will surely stunt your growth, make you stagnate, and eventually make you a fossil. This stagnation will spread to the people you’re leading.

Hence, it’s an open secret: it’s infinitely wiser to listen to a variety of voices you can trust – from different sectors of your business, organization, or community.

Read the room well. Don’t be beguiled by flattery, easy compliance or praise reports.

Don’t be cocooned in an inner circle that’s fueled by selfish interests.

We will grow personally and lead wisely if we constantly keep in touch with the “little people” as well. The rank and file. The dependable managers and supervisors who make things run even if we’re on vacation.

When we insulate ourselves in cliques and cocoons, we should prepare to become irrelevant.

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