Working with a leadership team the other day, the subject of truth came up, as it always must if action and traction are to be their maximum, leading inexorably to great results.

In this case, with this team, particularly, it seemed as if everyone was sitting on their hands, zipping their mouths shut, afraid to say what was really on their hearts and minds.

Holding themselves back, they were holding the group back, at a minimum…and perhaps even squashing their potential, entirely.

In effect, they were putting huge boulders or barriers smack dab in the middle of the road they had to run on. That’s a far cry from what they thought they were doing – hiding “unpleasantness” behind them, stored safely in caves somewhere out of the way.

Big truths and fears, untold, unworked, get in the way, in a BIG way…just like boulders on the road.

Truth is risky. Well-faced, well-worked, it means you ARE going to move, or at least solidify your position…but something is going to change. Ultimately, something is going to be better because you had the courage to look, to see, to say, to do.

It might get messy on the way, but that’s nothing compared to the mess you’ll make if you don’t…work with the truth.

Road boulders? Admit they’re there. Take a good look at them. And then work clearly and cleanly, and, if needed, courageously, with what you find.

Move ‘em out of the way.

*Road boulders is a term I’ve used for years to describe various situations…including work processes that don’t work well, and are difficult to move over, around, or through (much less, to get the results you want from the resources you have to invest in them). My husband has started using the term, “road boulders” (and gives me credit, yes) in his “Roadshow” column in the San Jose Mercury News, and it is becoming part of the term his readers are now accustomed to, and beginning to use.