What it means to be a contrarian leader is often misunderstood. True contrarians do not try to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing, nor do they take a contrary stand just to be different.
Contrarian leaders simply try to live in the future while everyone else is focused on living in the present.
In the words of contrarian leader Ron Shaich, the founder of Panera Bread, contrarians try to discover what will matter tomorrow and think “future back.” They stake out a position or view based upon what they see happening in the future, not upon what they believe the contemporary thinking suggests is happening now.
Contrarian leaders are not afraid to challenge the status quo or push against the assumptions that others rely upon. The more the conventional wisdom suggests the “correct” path forward, the more such leaders are likely to suggest that thinking differently could pay big dividends.
Being contrarian just for the sake of taking a divergent view is both counterproductive and usually wrong. Leaders who immediately reject or denigrate the views of others are not being contrarian, they are simply being disagreeable. Don’t let the popular definition of a contrarian fool you.
Contrarian leaders listen, collaborate, and consider multiple viewpoints before making judgments and decisions, just like everyone else. But as contrarians, they begin their analysis from a different starting place. They don’t reject conventional wisdom as much as they prefer to consider what the future might hold before accepting what the present might teach.
The best leaders are contrarians at heart. They are faster than others in seeing where things are going because they work backward from the future. They don’t swim against the tide to annoy or frustrate others. They simply find a strong current worthy of the challenge to master it.
