Dan Rockwell writes Leadership Freak: a daily leadership blog designed to help leaders reach higher in 300 words or less. He also serves as Pastor of Good News Bible Church and works as a consultant to Pennsylvania College of Technology. To connect with Rockwell, consider following him on twitter or reading Grace Freak, his Christian blog designed around the idea of breaking the bondage of legalism in 300 words or less.
Recently he wrote about an important yet infrequently discussed leadership topic: learning to ignore. In that post, Rockwell suggests leaders should ignore six things:
- Ignore occasional failure in others. Let people fail and learn on their own.
- Ignore occasional insults. People won’t always understand your passion or vision. They may say things that feel like insults, let it go.
- Ignore your own failures and successes. If past failures discourage more than instruct, forget them. If past successes inspire arrogance, forget them.
- Ignore stupid counsel. Say thank-you for the input, forget it, and move on. A word of caution, sometimes wise counsel sounds stupid.
- Ignore persistent critics. Turn away from those who always see the bad and never see the good.
- Ignore rules. Innovation is rule breaking. Helen Frankenthaler said, ”Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about.”
So What?
Leaders are constantly in motion – thinking and acting. Leaders must know when something is worthy of consideration or when it should be ignored.
- Are there any items on Rockwell’s list you disagree with? If so, which and why?
- Are there any items on Rockwell’s list you agree with but have a hard time practicing? If so, which and how will you make an effort to be more consistent in this area?
- How do you determine what to ignore? If you are honest with yourself about this topic do you find some discrepancy between what you know you should ignore and what you actually ignore?
In response to Rockwell’s article, Ajay Gupta, one of the blog’s contributors shared his thoughts on what should and should not be ignored:
What pulls you back should be ignored. What forces you ahead should not be ignored. Any thing that inhibits your goal, priority should be ignored. Things that do not affect your goal but do affect your reputation, character and integrity should not be ignored. Usually ignoring things require strong moral and mental power.