The more comfortable I get with having a place in the business world, the more interesting it is to see the lesson of The Emperor’s New Clothes come into play.
In the story, a king insists he’s wearing clothes when he’s not and everyone goes along with it. Except the one person who speaks up — and they’re deemed the crazy one for saying so.
My early career had a weird parallel with this story. Early on, it felt like it would speak poorly of you if you stated the obvious, or said what you saw. Surely I just wasn’t seeing the whole picture, surely if what I saw was true, someone else would have said it.
But the more I’ve done things and seen things, the opposite seems to be true. I contribute the most when I state the obvious, when I call people on what they’re wearing — or not wearing.