Lee Iacocca writes about the
9 “C’s” of leadership in his book, Where
Have all the Leaders Gone? The ninth
“C” is Common Sense. It struck me as
funny because I would like to know his definition of “common sense.” It’s a term that any of us would struggle to
define; however, we all know it when we see it, right?
In fact, like Iacocca, other
business/management/leadership authors use the same type of words to describe
leadership: character, credibility, competence,
communication, charisma, conviction, courage, curiosity, etc. These words all have the same problem as the
word beauty—I can’t describe it, but I know when I see it.
The problem is that we all
view the world differently and there is no single working definition of any of
these words. Even the word leadership
fits into this category of words—I can’t describe it, but I know it when I see
it.
If Common sense is so common,
why do most of us have a different idea of its definition? Men and women differ on common sense because
we have different experiences, the different generations differ because of
different contexts, people who live in different States differ because of different
environments, people from different countries differ because of different cultures,
people of different religions differ because of different beliefs, people of
different social/economic levels differ because of different lifestyles, people
of different education levels differ because of different amounts of
information, etc. Actually I have really
over simplified the problem as all these differences affect the common sense of
everyone. Additionally , many more factors are involved in our personal common
sense such as race, ethnicity, attitudes, values, abilities, past experiences,
etc.
We are all different, even
children growing up in the same families have different definitions of common
sense because they all had different friends, interests, role models, teachers,
jobs, hobbies, and experiences.
Clearly, good common sense
says the there is no such thing as common sense and I hope that is what Iacocca
meant. Like art, meanings of leadership
and common sense are in the eye of the beholder. Once we realize each person interprets words,
situations, and relationships differently, we will then begin to communicate, lead,
and follow better. For leaders to be
effective, the leader’s job is to clearly communicate to people her/his
meanings of words including common sense.
