‘Technically Correct’ isn’t a Leadership Skill

Yesterday, I was watching a Netflix reality series called, “Win the Wilderness” where a couple who has lived off the grid in Alaska for the past 34 years held a competition for six couples to win their homestead and 500-acre claim affectionately called Ose Mountain after the couple Duane and Rena Ose. Having carved out a three-story cabin, airstrip, garden with greenhouse, and small guest house over the years, they were now ready to find a less labor-intensive and sustainable life for their twilight years. The grit, resiliency, and agility this couple possessed to make this work over the years is astounding. Throughout the program the couple kept coming back to traits they were seeking in the winning couple: effective communication, ability to work together, ability to problem solve, and leadership. I kept thinking about how everything they talked about are emotional intelligence skills that can be developed and are necessary for all aspects of life. However, there was a single line in that series that was spoken in episode two of season one by one of the survival experts, Cutter Degerlund, where he was discussing the ability of the group of men to work together on a challenge and that one of them was ‘technically correct’ but the others would not listen to his advice. Degerlund professed, “'Technically correct’ is less important than effective leadership” (Burrell & Callum, 2020). What a profound statement to hear in a reality show about survival skills for interior Alaska! I had to stop the video and rewind it so I could pause that quote and take a picture of it. Here is my takeaway: survival skills based on developed emotional intelligence in the extreme wild are the same survival skills needed in your business and your personal life. Fortunately, just like developing survival skills for an extreme adventure, your emotional intelligence skills needed in all aspects of life can be developed to improve your chance of survival and success personally and professionally! Let me help you learn how to identify your emotional intelligence skills, plan which ones to work on, and create a roadmap to make it happen! www.motivatingexcellence.com

Burrell, G., & Callum, J. (2020). A Walk on the Wildside (No. S1, E2) [Video file]. In Win the Wilderness. Netflix BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000f1vv