Eccentric VS Conventional: Fostering Genuine Connections Across Cultures and Contexts
I am a big believer in how important it is to understand and appreciate others. I have blogged about this topic before in posts like, Building Relationships By Understanding and Appreciating. Then today in The Father Brown Stories I read a comment imposed by G. K. Chesterton on Father Brown saying, “To tell the truth, I was thinking how little some kinds of people know about other kinds of people” (p. 258). This is so true and drives home my belief in seeing every human as a unique individual. This is such an important attribute of human centered leadership.
In the context of Chesterton’s story he used the examples of English Barristers and Poets. Chesterton said, “They would think he must be rather eccentric; but he isn’t at all eccentric, he’s only conventional. They would think so, because they don’t know anything about…” (p. 258). Think about that. How many times has someone thought you were eccentric or quirky because that someone did not know anything about you. If we’re honest, we’ve done this same things to others. I work really hard at not doing this. Again, understand and appreciate!
This reminded me of another post I wrote back in 2020 after reading the great book Joyful: The Surprising Power Of Ordinary Things To Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee. Lee taught us not to feel bound by convention; break the mold and bring joy to the world. We need to use playful design and embrace our quirkiness. I wrote about this in Leading With A Touch Of Quirkiness.
To be effective leaders we need to recognize that we don’t have all the answers or full knowledge of others’ lived realities. Cultivating an inclusive culture involves making genuine efforts to understand diverse viewpoints, experiences, and values within an organization. By acknowledging the gaps in our understanding—much like the Chesterton’s quotes suggest—we can foster empathy, reduce biases, and create an environment where everyone feels valued, heard, understood, and appreciated.
Eccentric and Unorthodox and Quirky! Oh My!
Let’s face it, eccentrics are the people who see problems from new and unexpected angles; whose very oddity allows them to conjure innovative solutions. They are the visionaries who make giant imaginative leaps. I’ve actually blogged about this before in Leading With A Touch Of Quirkiness. Ingrid Fetell Lee told us to quit being bound by convention; our quirkiness brings joy to the world. We need to celebrate creativity.
I was reminded of this when flipping through the channels (do we still call them that, or am I aging myself?) after the NLCS game last night and coming across Night Court. Night Court, ran on NBC from 1984 to 1992. Harry Anderson starred as the young, unorthodox, and magic-trick performing Judge Harry Stone presiding over the anything-goes atmosphere of New York Municipal Court’s night shift. I had forgotten about this great show so stayed on the channel and watched some of it. Harry was up on insubordination charges and was described as being eccentric. It was said by the presiding judge that being eccentric is how we become effective and get things done to help others. Long story short, the case was dismissed.
As a person who resembles being eccentric, unorthodox, and quirky at times, this really got me to reflecting on why so many see this as a bad thing and so few dare to be eccentric; when really it isn’t such a bad thing after all David Weeks, psychologist, did some research into the eccentricities of 1,000 subjects. Weeks found eccentrics to be highly creative and that they tend to be optimistic people with a highly developed, mischievous sense of humour, childlike curiosity and a drive to make the world a better place. It would seem to me that we need more of this. Just saying!
Weeks found the study subjects to live slightly longer, suffer less from mental illness, have very few alcohol or drug abusers, and visit the doctor less. Therefore, if we eliminate the struggle to conform we probably suffer less stress. Again, as we learned from Ingrid Fetell Lee, a little quirkiness will help bring joy into our lives. And…into the world.
So, go ahead and don’t be ashamed to be curious, creative, and a little quirky!
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