Lenin said: “Confidence does not exclude control”: one could reverse the sentence by saying “control does not exclude confidence”. To drive the point home, Corneille indicates in the Cid that “too much confidence attracts danger”. All this is very well thought out but without confidence, the future can only be bleak and bleak. Let us not be naive: absolute confidence is rarely offered and even more rarely given.
This is logical and even beneficial in many ways, but the logic of absolute control is devastating, castrating and demotivating. As in everything, the right balance is certainly the key to success. Society has become very open and at the same time very controlling: we want to be able to do everything, but we want to have a say in everything. Civil society has become procedural and suppliers seek to protect themselves as much as possible. Also, three questions should be asked:
- how far am I willing to admit and take risks?
- how far can I trust?
- how far am I willing to control and manage the risks?
A minimum of confidence is fundamental for any society and throughout life. breaking this vital minimum is to open wide the door to totalitarianism, intolerance and exclusion. Conversely, it is obvious that safeguards must exist to channel certain possible drifts and allow everyone to evolve in a safe environment. Most of the great discoveries or great deeds were the result of great confidence and perhaps a share of naivety.
But how many stinging failures were suffered before arriving at the result? In modern businesses of a certain size, ability to trust is almost completely gone. This is valid for everyone: managers vis-à-vis staff and vice versa, companies vis-à-vis customers and vice versa. Legal, control and compliance units have never looked so good and the number of employees in these sectors has literally exploded … until their next replacement by robots and algorithms. But this is another debate…
Finally, confidence is not given, it is earned. By his behaviour, his attitude, his constancy and his actions, individuals can benefit from confidence of relatives, colleagues, leaders: it is a very long way paved with many disappointments but does not we say that it is often path that is more interesting than destination?
Happy New Year 2020 !