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86 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2023 True leaders drive change. ey are not afraid of swimming against the current. Man- agers, however, drive the status quo. eir mentality, "It's the way we have always done it," feels safe and comfortable. Balloon Factory One of my favorite authors is Seth Godin. In his book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, he uses the metaphor of a balloon factory to describe a business environment that maintains the status quo. It's a workplace full of workers— the balloons—who are fearful of sharp objects like pins, needles, and porcupines. ey don't like changes in temperature, or for that matter, changes of any kind. Godin's point is that many workplaces are too concerned with maintain- ing the status quo, even though everyone there thinks it "sucks." Still, they freak out when a Leadership 101: Be a Heretic, not a Sheep "unicorn" shows up at the door, which is any- thing that disrupts the status quo of the bal- loons at the factory. e average factory in our business is fraught with anxiety and short-term fixes that perpetu- ate the status quo. e average manager spends too much time and energy putting out fires instead of moving the business forward, and "firefighting" is extremely exhausting. Does this sound familiar? If not, good for you, but you are probably in the minority. Sheepwalking When we say that people behave like sheep, we are saying they blindly follow the status quo because it is the "way we have always done things." It's called "sheepwalking." I would bet a boatload of beer that at some point in your career, a boss told you something like, "Be a good soldier and just do what I say. You have to be a team player and take one for the team." Many times, we do things we know are not right simply because we don't want to rock the boat, cause issues, or put a bullseye on our backs. I don't blame the sheep for their behav- ior; I blame leadership. A personal story: Chris Kyle is my true-life hero who wrote the book American Sniper: e Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Mili- tary History. Chris's father once gave a speech in which he described three types of people in the world: sheep, The Right Approach by Steve Williams, THE RIGHT APPROACH CONSULTING