By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you better cope with friction. Reading time: 2:26.

Remember how much fun you had as a kid rubbing your hair with a balloon and sticking it on the wall ? I do. Oh, how fascinated I was when I first saw a balloon clinging to the wall with the magic of static electricity. But later I saw the power of opposites in that hair-raising demonstration that still reminds me of key leadership skill: diversity.

Diversity? Sure. The negatively charged electrons in my hair were naturally attracted to their complete opposite: a positive charge on the wall.

Learning that opposites attract in electricity got me to thinking more about the awesome power of diversity.

Indeed the more I learned about electricity the better I understood how leaders connect opposites to generate even greater power.

Here’s an example: Friction is usually something most people would want less of in their lives. Not leaders. They generate friction. On purpose. It’s the friction that stirs continuous improvement and energy.

Likewise in static electricity, it’s the friction that gets those negatively charged electrons to move on the balloon to stick on the wall.

And of course it is the lack of friction that causes that balloon to come crashing down when the diversity degrades into homogeneity: when all the free negatively charged electrons hook up with positively charged mates and become neutral.

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