Shades of Gray

Leaders often carry a reputation (perhaps well deserved) for seeing problems and their solutions as mostly about the difference between black and white. Whether a political ideology, a business theory, or a faith question, it is easy for leaders to choose a perspective on either end of the spectrum and proceed to defend it. While this practice may be helpful under certain circumstances it rarely serves a leader well to only live with these two options.

Growing older has already taught me valuable lessons about how much I know and have yet to learn. My youthful exuberance and confidence has mellowed into a more permanent shade of gray. While I’m not without some core convictions, I find that many of life’s most persistent questions don’t have clear and decisive answers. My need for a black and white world will never be realized.

Where do our perspectives about life’s shades of gray emerge? For me, many of them are rooted in times of doubt and anxiety; times when fear, however real or imagined, rears its ugly head. I’m grateful that my primitive brain triggers its fight or flight protective measures because without them I would probably be dead. Yet that same internal mechanism has also fed my need for clarity instead of teaching me how to comfortably live with doubt.

To embrace doubt, and its accompanying shades of gray, leaders may need to unlearn much of what we have come to believe as truth. Too often those assumptions have been built on what we know and feel comfortable with. Without a willingness to encounter other views and opinions—other truths—our decisions and frame of reference will be limited to what has become black and white in our minds and experiences. Exposure to shades of gray doesn’t need to dismiss these current realities, only serve to inform them with new data and emotion.

There will always be questions and purposes that remain hidden. No one was present at the beginning of the world yet my confidence in a God that could create such a place remains unshaken. Instead, what I have been reminded of again this week is how valuable the gray areas of life can be in my role as a leader. When I am willing to face my fears, and live with the anxieties that accompany them, then I am empowered to do some of my best work. The doubts create cracks in my experience so the light of truth can shine through.

Where will you find the courage to doubt your fears? How will you boldly progress from black and white to shades of gray on the issues that matter most to you? When might you be willing to unlearn what you thought you knew so you can embrace what you really don’t? Instead of aspiring to achieve a sure thing perhaps leaders would be better served seeking only to be sure enough. Might those very shades of gray that emerge reflect the truth and wisdom we long to possess.