Why do I do this… And a BIG thank you
About one year ago, I started my journey with this blog/newsletter and have been keeping my promise of a weekly cadence. As I wrote in my LinkedIn profile at some point, I do this foremost for myself. In the sense that I have no real expectations of creating anything that resembles fame with it. I continue doing it for me because I am gaining so much out of it in terms of clarifying my own thoughts by having to articulate them here.
Surely it is nice if/that some people see value. It provides a feedback loop. But primarily, it just reinforces my belief, as a secondary reason for continuing doing it as well, that the best kind of knowledge is shared knowledge. As one of the few things in life that multiply and grow, the more you give it away.
So, I could only thank you BIG time if you find any value in what I write, and because of that, maybe you have decided to subscribe to it. I'm both humbled and encouraged by the fact that +100 people have taken that step, and it's been ramping up recently—nearly every day someone else joins.
Again, it's not the point, not the essence, but it is nice, it helps me to get some sense that it may serve a higher purpose than just me putting my thoughts out there…
That's essentially it for today. Although I thought of also recapping my very own first post, which explains the choice for the name of the blog/newsletter. It's a slightly updated/improved version, but still consistent with the intended message, and even the text is largely the same.
Why ‘conceptual leader’ and what this blog is about?
The term may sound odd to some. It may look counterintuitive and even in conflict to a lot of what I am proud about on how I try to face the world, grounded in reality and focusing on what's possible. Shouldn’t I rather promote pragmatism? I do. And I will. Even here, eventually.
But there are some reasons to choose the name favoring the ‘conceptual’, and thus the world of ideas. It is not about making some sort of contrast or be or sound different. It is more about who I am. My thinking does start from a higher-level and I enjoy 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 favor 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 on 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 historical data is only good at predicting the future for as long as conditions are same or sufficiently similar. And that, to deal with uncertainty, leaders need a good ‘theory’ which helps 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, the blog/newsletter is about?
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 the 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.