A few years ago at a conference I learned about a former training school (Est. 1909) for African American women with the motto “we specialize in the wholly impossible.” The school's founder, Nannie Helen Burroughs, meant the motto to be provocative and powerful, but also purposely ‘ironic’ - turning on the idea that what is apparently ‘impossible’ in the minds of some is actually ‘possible’ for others. Not surprisingly then, Rosa Parks was a student at the school. Effective leaders understand that ‘possible’ and ‘impossible,’ more than predictability, SHOULD speak of potentiality - what someone or some organization has the ability to do despite the fact that they have not ‘yet’ done it. Leaders as coaches, advisors and process owners see farther and further than ‘what is’ into ‘what can be’ - beyond the "impossible" to the individual "I'm possible" and the institutional "wholly possible!" #LeadWithPossible
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