Against the Odds

Two days ago, on a 4-hour train ride from Vienna to Klagenfurt, Austria I happened to spot two lone deer within a five-minute interval. What were the odds? I was glad I kept my eyes open for those two instances; otherwise, I would have missed those decisive moments.

Talking about deer, I read about the concept of Purple Cows as a marketing principle (Seth Godin). A purple cow stands out from the boring brown ones by being different. Purple cows are rare. Yet, brown cows are just as rare in a country with few cows.

How do you stand out? Leaders have to make a stand. Stand out, and be noticed. If you stand back, you might be missed. Gary Yardley and Jan Kelly proposed in Profiling Instruments of Potential Succession (PIPS) that we take different stands like: withstanding, understanding, upstanding, outstanding, and standing out.

What do you do to stand out? What do you stand up for? What is your standing in your company and community? As a leader, how do you develop your ways of standing? How do you stand up to the truth?