Taking Stockdale of the situation

February 24, 2021

By guest contributor Dan Hammond, CPO of Squadify

Here in the UK, we just heard how we will emerge from the pandemic. Slowly.

Many of us realised that we had been over-optimistic. I was reminded of Admiral James Stockdale.

Jim Collins made popular Stockdale’s paradox, created in a Vietnam POW camp: ‘You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.’

Chillingly, Stockdale said that those who died were optimists.

What does this mean for leadership?

89% of people report a decline in workplace well-being since the start of the pandemic so how we handle this is important.

We need to face facts and also help each other to know that all – eventually – will be well.

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