— To follow is a bullet of wisdom on leadership. It comes from Tom’s rifle, named Shot, who has seen it all. You’ll get the drift by clicking Blog in the menu at www.tomnewhouse.com. —
You can’t dodge a bullet. Once we rifles, or any firearms, fire, our bullets travel at least 760 mph. You won’t be dodging them. Still, the expression exists. It means to narrowly avoid danger. I guess danger dodgers, dodge bullets.
Are you a danger dodger? Some leaders are. And some are good at it. Too good: They put their followers in harm’s way. They pursue goals that are unrealistic, they take risks out of balance with rewards, or they treat followers as cheap fodder for wild shots in the dark. Oh, it happens that any business or organization has to nimbly avoid failure occasionally, but leaders who take unreasonable risks routinely are danger dodgers, and eventually they will be hit. Well, here’s the sad thing: Although they may escape, their people will be hit. Not much of a leader!