Colin Hunter - Be More Wrong

Be More Wrong is a refreshing change from the books that promise better leadership in three easy steps. This is an invaluable manual for those leaders who are ready to experiment and get it wrong in service of getting it right.

Liane Davey, author, You First and The Good Fight

In the post- COVID world where disruption across societies, industries, and the world of work will be the norm, the successful leader will disrupt, have purpose, be data driven, and champion talent. Colin Hunter offers a powerful approach to building this new leadership DNA . Drawing from his deep experience, Colin offers real insight, great stories, and, importantly, practical advice. A top read for someone wanting to start their leadership journey in a fresh new way or for a seasoned leader ready for reinvention.

Ismail Amla, coauthor, From Incremental to Exponential

Be More Wrong shows how the path to unparalleled success is paved with purposeful failure. In this sweeping, original, and slyly subversive book, Colin Hunter shares fresh insights and practical guidance that you can use to inform, enrich, and enliven your leadership adventures. Its a rare treat to find yourself being provoked, agitated, and challenged... and being eager for more as you turn each page. You couldnt do more right than to read Be More Wrong!

Bill Treasurer, author, Courage Goes to Work

Be More Wrong provides a road map to a leadership style that ensures innovation, satisfaction, growth, and happiness. It delivers a framework to help leaders see how they can be more wrong to learn quickly and achieve success. This is not just another leadership book. It is one youll want to read carefully, mark up the margins, and try out the suggested habits.

Elaine Biech, author, Skills for Career Success

Copyright 2021 by Colin Hunter

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

Cataloguing in publication information is available from Library and Archives Canada.
ISBN 978-1-77458-039-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-77458-040-0 (ebook)

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Edited by James Harbeck
Copyedited by Steph VanderMeulen
Proofread by Alison Strobel
Jacket design by Taysia Louie
Interior design by Fiona Lee
Interior illustrations by Michelle Clement
Ebook by Bright Wing Media
Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens
Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books
Distributed in the US and internationally by Macmillan

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BeMoreWrong.com

My favorite expression when coaching leaders is Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens, by Jimi Hendrix. I could have dedicated this book to all the people you hear mentioned in its chapters who shaped my journey of being more wrong. However, there is one person, more than any other, who influenced me in my life and leadership journeyand that is Randy Taylor. He was a student of my grandfathers and took me into his home in the United States just after college. He and his wife, Arline, made me feel like a member of their family. I have held a vision of him in my mind, from that time: hes sitting on a rocking chair on a deck in Montreat, North Carolina, smoking his pipe, laughing and listening with an assured curiosity to my twenty-one-year-old, insecure self starting out on a journey that is now my working life. Randy had the amazing ability to make me feel special, to make my stories feel interesting, to make my questions on politics and life feel like the most inspired questions ever. He made everybody he met feel special in their own right, whether they agreed with his views or not. By truly listening, he recruited them as followers. By being curious, he mentored me on how to observe, listen, and create new insights from differing points of view. He sought out the tough conversations and allowed himself to be more wrong and see others views. He was a leader I could admire, a person I could look up to, and to all his family and friends, a person who filled their lives with laughter, wisdom, and love.

Only a small part is played in great deeds by any hero.

Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

I ve been wrong about almost everything.

About the job Id end up having. What Id be good at. What would bore me. Where Id have success. Where Id fail. How Id lead. Where Id end up living. What Im known for. What would be important to me when I was thirty, and then forty, and then fifty.

And thats just a few things about me. Dont even get me started on how many ways Ive been wrong about things about my wife...

But wrong isnt the most interesting word in the title of Colin Hunters book. Its more. Be more wrong.

In other words, its not just accept that you wont get everything right and hope that no one important enough notices. No, what we have here is a gauntlet laid down: get better at being wrong. Do it faster and more courageously and with greater gusto.

Theres a reason for this seemingly nonsensical advice. Its that out there on the edge, at the boundaries of the map, in the water just out of your depth, across the threshold of the heros journey... thats where your best self is to be found.

If youre considering Be More Wrong, its because youre a leader seeking to be better.

You can only go so far as a leader through learning the technical skills. Those are the ones you get right, and my guess is youve mostly mastered those. Thats where we all start, but make no mistake: theyre just the start. The juicy, interesting stuff is off the expected path. Its in the place you learn to be more wrong about your own and others expectations, and more right about the leader the world is asking you to be.

Michael Bungay Stanier,

author of The Coaching Habit and The Advice Trap

W hen I was twenty-nine years old, I collapsed on a golf course. It was the start of a breakdown that ended with me driving all the way from Nottingham, where I lived, to Newcastle and falling apart in front of my parents. I could not cope and I did not know why.

I was working for Procter & Gamble in a medical representative sales role that I hated. I was burning the candle at both ends, also socializing, trying to find a group of friends in a new city. I was exercising, but my diet was mixed and my lifestyle did not include recovery. I ended up sitting in front of our family doctor, Gus Da Silva. It was his conversation and guidance that changed my life and started me on a new journey. I was unhappy in my job and did not know why. My resilience was low and I needed to change. Dr. Da Silva said that I needed to manage my energy and find a way to take better care of myself. How could I have fun in what I did and how could I build myself up to be more resilient to what life threw at me?

My collapse on the golf course triggered the recognition that something was wrongthat I was wrong. Out of being wrong, I sought to change my life: I decided to do an MBA , decided to be myself for that MBA year, and with all of that, made new connections without which I would not have found that first meaningful leadership consultant role. By being wrong, I had found my place to make a difference. That journey from Nottingham to Newcastle turned out to be the start of a longer, continuing journey of personal evolution that has guided my professional choices in the vast playground that most of us call work.