Are You Guiding Or Governing?

I was having a leadership discussion recently on the dilemma of wanting organic growth, but also needing to control it with checks and balances to ensure the brand wasn’t tarnished.

It’s a discussion many of us have had: whilst you respect your community and want them to run with ideas, you don’t trust them enough to give full ownership, either because they might get it wrong or they might not keep it up.

I see two mindsets at either end of a spectrum.

Guidance is hands-off. It says ‘go for it’. At the extreme, it lets anything happen.

Governance is sign-off. It says ‘hold on’. At the extreme, it lets nothing happen.

In balance, each has important strengths. For instance: guidance creates unconferences that destroy the speaker/attendee divide and get us learning together. Governance creates a smooth conference feel with controls that deliver a powerful learning experience.

I’m beginning to realise: there are things that have to be governed, as much as I want to make everything open. I’m always going to govern doctrine. But I can only guide how people live.

We need to be guiding. And then we need to be governing. The art is knowing which to apply when.