Why ‘conceptual leader’ and what this blog is about?

A journey starts with a first step... And I want to get far, not necessarily go fast, which means I want to go together.

The term may sound odd to some. It may look counterintuitive and even in conflict to a lot what I am proud about on how I try to face the world, in realistic fashion. Shouldn’t I rather promote pragmatism? I do. And I will. Even here, eventually.

But there are some reasons to choose the name favouring the ‘conceptual’, and thus the world of ideas. At a mundane level, there is already plenty of good content which properly make use of the term ‘pragmatic’. Two which I recommend, and I am subscribed to the newsletters:

·         The Pragmatic Manager by Johanna Rothman.

·         The Pragmatic Engineer by Gergely Orosz.

But it is not necessarily about making some sort of contrast or be or sound different. It is more about who I am. My thinking does start from higher-level, and I enjoy a lot the conceptual and intellectual debate. I read a lot but can’t quite get enough traction on doing so with fiction. Too easily I concentrate on non-fictional reading. In psychological terms they say that I have high intellect (as in an attraction to the world of ideas) but lower openness (to a creative side as in an attraction to arts).

This is where I can nicely circle back. See, I like concepts, I like to talk about them, debate, to feel intellectually challenged. But I favour non-fiction. Which is a clue to how I like not only to discuss those matters but want to find useful stuff I can put in practice. The ‘conceptual pragmatist’, perhaps, could be an alternative.

‘Leader’ sounds nicer though. It also is broad and related to what I want to focus here.

There is one more thing. Which is a reference to one of my personal contemporary favorites in business management and leadership related research: the late Clay Christensen. Who used to point out that past success and even historical data is only good at predicting future for as long as conditions are same or sufficiently similar. And that, to deal with uncertainty, leaders need good ‘theory’ which help us to understand ‘how’ and ‘why’.

I believe in that concept. And would argue that explains why some leaders seem to only succeed in relatively similar contexts, while others seem to much more easily adapt to changes and largely excel wherever they are or whatever they are thrown at… The latter are, in my words, ‘conceptual leaders’. It should go without saying that they did learn the additional trick that is to put in practice and be pragmatic as they execute.

Now, what about what this is about, the blog?!

For a while I have been sharing short insights in my LinkedIn profile (link below) on a regular basis and interacting with others’ posts (although some of the latter happens in my native language, Portuguese, sorry!). I get good feedback about it, interesting enough more ‘offline’ than in the platform itself. That keeps me going and I plan to continue doing it for as long as I can foresee in future.

I figured I could create a next layer on top. Something slightly more profound, deeper. Less regularly though – aiming at a weekly cadence (perhaps occasionally overachieving that target, hopefully rarely missing it).

So, here we are. And if you have got to this point, welcome aboard, hope this will be also useful for you. Let me know your feedback!

by Rodrigo Sperb, feel free to connect (I only refuse invites from people clearly with an agenda to ‘coldly’ sell something to me), happy to engage and interact.