【观点】管理者的勇敢逆行：成为那只被嘲讽的“黑羊”

随大流让人感觉安全——但往往会让我们陷入危险。

在日益嘈杂的环境中，无论是企业或人，要想长期发展，就必须培养出愿意脱颖而出的特定技能：独立思考。

逆势而行的异类更容易取得突破性成功，这也被称为“黑羊悖论”——为了取得成功，无论是作为投资者、企业家、作家、知识分子、艺术家还是任何创意领域，人们都必须抵制顺从的诱惑，而这个过程，往往是痛苦万分的。

对管理者而言，逆势而行往往充满艰辛，但要想引领企业实现长期卓越，这却是不可或缺的品质。

一、随波逐流的平庸 VS 逆流而上的成功

群体智慧对于企业决策至关重要。然而，若高管随波逐流、仅仅依赖群体共识、往往只能达到行业平均水平。因此，管理者需要具备独立思考的能力，敢于逆潮流而上，探索未被发掘的机会。

正如指数投资所揭示的：如果你对平平的投资回报感到满意，那么可以很舒适地继续保持；但如果你想要实现高于平均水平的目标，那么持续超越的唯一方法就是愿意逆流而行。

这是一个悖论，因为成功通常是某种矛盾的结果：愿意在短期内表现不佳（或被嘲笑），从而为长期成功创造必要的平台。

纵观历史，最成功的个人、公司和技术，最初往往都是一只“黑羊”——被主流社会排斥（或厌恶），但多年后却取得了非凡的成功。 CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

那么。管理者如何向“黑羊”靠拢呢？事实上，“黑羊”并没有什么特质，但人们可能在生活中或多或少都见证过这种现象：有些人天生就有能力无视他人对其行为的看法，这可以为他们创造机会去追求他人不敢触及的想法。

例如，著名投资者比尔·格罗斯 (Bill Gross) 曾说过，阿斯伯格综合征可能让他成为了更好的投资者，因为他比大多数人更善于“区分”。他认为，患有阿斯伯格综合征的人“可以在不同的宇宙中运作，而不会受到其他宇宙的太大影响。”

当然，不可否认的是这种特质有时候会表现为“不近人情”的缺点。但那些专注力强的人确实更有可能取得优异成绩。

正如作家弗雷德里克·吉申最近回忆的那样，“当沃伦·巴菲特和比尔·盖茨第一次共进晚餐时，他们被问到什么因素对他们的成功最为重要。‘我说，‘专注’，”巴菲特回忆道。“比尔也说了同样的话。”

二、像“黑羊”一样独立思考

即便多数人生来并不具备“黑羊”的生物遗传构成，但有一些简单的做法可以帮助管理者成为独立的思考者。

1、深度学习与战略洞察。深度学习，顾名思义，就是选择一个主题（可能是专业领域内的主题）并深入探索该主题，远远超出竞争对手可能追求的范围，便会惊讶地发现，只需比对手多做一点工作，就能迅速获得优势。

在单一主题上深度钻研的专业知识，形成独特的战略洞察力，将使管理者能够做出超越同行的决策。

2、多元化视角与跨界学习。仅仅钻研专业知识的代价，可能变得目光短浅：在专业环境中变得孤立，对世界的理解停滞不前。而多元化学习可以确保管理者拥有独立的观点，并能够在多个领域进行横向思考，激发创新思维，帮助企业发现新的增长点。 CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

正如摩根·豪瑟尔所认为的，“如果你从事商业，你会惊讶地发现，你可以从生物学中学到多少有关护城河和竞争优势的知识。如果你从事生物学，你会惊讶地发现，你可以从商业中学到多少有关增长极限和进化的知识。”

3、写作。写作是最简单的工具，管理者可以用写作来检验自己是否理解了某件事——或者某件事是否有意义。

写作也有一种有趣的方式，可以让管理者的思维游离，探索它真正相信的东西，能够更清楚地看清世界，从而抵御外界的质疑和压力，保持内心的坚定和自信。 CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

翻译：

The manager’s brave retrograde: Become the “black sheep” that is mocked

Following the crowd feels safe — but it often puts us in danger.

In an increasingly noisy environment, businesses and people who want to thrive in the long term must develop a specific skill that they are willing to stand out from the crowd: independent thinking.

Contrarian outlier is more likely to achieve breakthrough success, also known as the “Black sheep paradox” – in order to succeed, whether as an investor, entrepreneur, writer, intellectual, artist, or any creative field, people must resist the temptation to conform, and the process is often painful. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

Going against the trend is often difficult for managers, but it is an essential quality to lead a business to long-term excellence.

The mediocrity of going with the flow VS the success of going upstream

The wisdom of crowds is crucial to corporate decision-making. However, executives who go with the flow and rely solely on group consensus often only reach the industry average. Therefore, managers need to have the ability to think independently and dare to go against the tide and explore unexplored opportunities.

As index investing shows: if you’re happy with mediocre returns, you can comfortably stay that way; But if you want to achieve above-average goals, then the only way to consistently outperform is to be willing to swim against the current.

This is a paradox, because success is often the result of something contradictory: a willingness to underperform (or be ridiculed) in the short term to create the necessary platform for long-term success.

Throughout history, the most successful individuals, companies, and technologies have often started out as black sheep – ostracized (or loathed) by mainstream society, but achieved extraordinary success years later.

So. How do managers get closer to the black sheep? In fact, black sheep don’t have any qualities, but people have probably witnessed this phenomenon at some point in their lives: Some people have an innate ability to ignore what others think of their behavior, which can create opportunities for them to pursue ideas that others are afraid to touch.

For example, the famous investor Bill Gross has said that Asperger’s syndrome may have made him a better investor because he is better at “differentiating” than most people. He believes that people with Asperger’s syndrome “can operate in different universes without being affected too much by other universes.”

Of course, there is no denying that this trait can sometimes be expressed as a “inhuman” shortcoming. But those with a strong focus were indeed more likely to excel. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

As author Frederick Gishen recently recalled, “When Warren Buffett and Bill Gates had dinner for the first time, they were asked what factors were most important to their success.” ‘I said,’ Focus, ‘” Buffett recalled. “Bill said the same thing.”

Think independently like a black sheep

Even if most people are not born with the genetic makeup of a “black sheep,” there are some simple practices that can help managers become independent thinkers. CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

1. Deep learning and strategic insight. Deep learning, as the name suggests, is about picking a topic (perhaps within a field of expertise) and exploring that topic in depth, far beyond what a competitor might pursue, and being surprised at how quickly you can gain an advantage by doing just a little more work than your competitor.

In-depth expertise on a single topic, forming unique strategic insights, will enable managers to make decisions that outperform their peers.

2. Diversified perspectives and cross-border learning. The price of merely delving into professional knowledge can become shortsighted: isolation in a professional environment, a stagnant understanding of the world. Diversified learning can ensure that managers have independent perspectives and are able to think laterally in multiple fields, stimulate innovative thinking, and help enterprises find new growth points.

As Morgan Hauser puts it, “If you’re in business, you’d be surprised how much you can learn about moats and competitive advantage from biology.” If you go into biology, you’d be surprised how much you can learn about limits to growth and evolution from business.” CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）

3. Write. Writing is the simplest tool managers can use to see if they understand something – or if something makes sense.

Writing also has a fun way of allowing a manager’s mind to wander, explore what it really believes, and be able to see the world more clearly, thus resisting external questioning and pressure and maintaining inner firmness and confidence.

本文由CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）转载而成，来源于CXO公园；编辑/翻译：CXO UNIONCXO联盟小U。

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