"The most important part of leadership is intellectual honesty. The reality principle - the ability to see the world as it is, not as you wish it to be" - Jack Welch
"The people who say you are not facing reality actually mean you are not facing their idea of reality" - Margaret Halsey
Want to make the world a better place? Practice intellectual honesty.
Intellectual honesty means always questioning yourself as to what you believe and the source of that belief, in order to be honest about whether or not it is legitimate. It is asking questions like:
Do I actually believe this, or did I passively adopt this view from my household, society, school, culture, etc?
Is my point of view correct or do I need to think about changing it in light of counter points someone else has made?
Am I emotionally attached to this idea with things like protectiveness, pride, ego, etc.? Is that getting in the way of me seeking the truth about this idea?
Intellectualy honest is really examining yourself to make sure you are being as emotionally detached and objectively truthful as possible and about the work you've put into an idea, and the legitamacy of its source.
Why is this important for me? Humanity often gets into hot piles of trouble because we don't practice intellectual honesty. Families and personal relationships are broken, wars are fought, and all sorts of connection across differences destroyed because of our tendency to passively yet fiercely hold certain viewpoints. That isn't to say some aren't worth defending--some are--but you must always run them through the filter of intellectual honesty to do your best to ensure they are for truly rationale and virtuous reasons--totally separate from your own biases, environment, societal norms, peer group, etc. It's not easy to go there, and hence humans usually don't, but you can be apart of making the world a better place if you do. It takes a lot of humility. See this complimentary post on "It's What You Learn After You Know It All That Really Counts".
Pictured: Margaret Halsey
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