Where There’s Tension, There’s Truth

By Les Mottosky

For most of us, death holds the greatest tension. I became curious about mortality at 12 years old after losing a grandparent. My exploration revealed we're disastrously ignorant about death’s meaning, value and – most stunningly – it’s inevitability. For some reason I accepted these, and voila: a disruptor was born.

If I’m not making people uncomfortable, I’m not doing my job. It’s been that way since I was a teen. More than the adolescent impulse to individuate, it was an intuitive pull to develop an operating system for the life I wanted to live. The one I needed to live.

This maverick orientation isn’t easy. And it’s increasingly no longer optional. For any of us.

Tension’s necessity, especially for a society conditioned by convenience, comfort, and security, is more urgent than ever. It’s also ever-aligned with the Universe, Nature, the Way, and capital-T Truth.

Tension is nature’s steroid. It builds strength, fuels growth and drives evolution. Nothing in nature develops without it. Ecosystems thrive on dynamic balance: predator and prey, drought and flood, light and shadow. Tension isn’t a problem; it’s the process of life.

Which is why one of the most essential, and most underdeveloped, responsibilities of a leader is to create discomfort. Not chaos, but productive tension. The kind that stretches a team past what they believed they were capable of. The kind that challenges assumptions, breaks stale patterns, and reveals hidden potential.

Too many leaders avoid discomfort. They keep the peace. But peace without progress is stagnation. Comfort without confrontation is decay and cultures built on ease eventually snap.

Real leadership demands holding a mirror to complacency and inviting people into the friction that leads to fire. This creative tension is where new strength, strategy, vision and resolve emerge. Where adaptation becomes the obvious imperative.

This isn’t about being a jerk. It’s caring enough to apply pressure. The right kind, at the right time. It’s understanding that growth rarely feels good in the moment, but it pays off later.

So when things feel a little too smooth, it may be time to seek out some tension.

Because without it, you’re not leading. You’re just managing inertia.

And as we know, in nature, inertia leads to extinction.

TAGS: #Audacious Strategies #Adaptation As Innovation #Wisdom In Leadership #Nature At Work #Leadership Growth #Tension Is Truth

Les Mottosky

Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.

Ask about the Clarity Engine Process.

lesmottosky@mac.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/les-mottosky-9b94527/