Like a Rolling Stone

Navigating Leadership without a Map

Ever been schooled by your own teenager? I have…several times. Most recently, fresh out of a showing of A Complete Unknown - or as my kid calls it, “the Bob Dylan movie”- I made the rookie mistake of asking him what he thought the theme of the movie was. Without missing a beat, he dropped a truth bomb: “It’s about being comfortable in your own skin when you’re leading the way. Most people are too scared of being different and just trade their authentic self for popularity.”

This, mind you, from a kid who knows more about classic rock than I ever will. Bob Dylan may have gone electric, but my son went deep...very deep. Who knew the key to leadership and innovation could come from a teen who also thinks sticky chicken is a food group?

A Life Lesson Learned

As the song played on in a loop in my head for a few days, I had to admit - my kid was onto something. Sure, Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” is about Miss Lonely’s tumble from grace and the perils of drifting aimlessly with the crowd. But in reality - strip out one verse, and it starts sounding like the inner monologue of someone freshly promoted to a command or executive position.

You may have experienced it yourself. One minute, you’re celebrating with family, peers, and friends at your promotion ceremony, and shortly thereafter – maybe the next day, you are staring at a mountain of responsibilities, challenges, and everyone else’s problems they need you to solve…all alone!

“How does it feel, ah, how does it feel?

To be on your own, with no direction home,

Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone.”

Seriously, could there be a more poetic anthem for that moment when you realize that the “honeymoon is over?”

Like a Complete Unknown

So, for all you aspiring leaders out there bracing for those “no direction home” moments, take a page from Bob Dylan - and my son, who became a sage between a movie and the ride home.

Leadership and innovation are tough gigs; they don’t come with a GPS or even a smartphone app. You’ve got to lock your azimuth on your true North and hold on tight, because of the storms. Oh, yeah, they are going to come. Big or small, sometimes with warning, and sometimes like a tsunami in the middle of the night.

The key is to keep rolling, even if you feel like a complete unknown.

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year from all of us at the RF FACTOR!