The Nose Knows

Leadership Lessons: Timeless Stories for the Modern Leader

Your “unconventional” skillset may be exactly what your challenges call for.

With awkward splats and swishes, the furry, brown creature works its way through the water. Sifting mud with its snout, it struggles hard to find its dinner. Its favorite dishes are tadpoles, earthworms, and shellfish, which can all be found in the banks of freshwater rivers.

When early colonizers in Australia sent a platypus pelt back to England, scientists there thought the animal was an elaborate hoax—even checking for signs of stitches, thinking someone had sewn various animals together. The platypus has webbed feet like a duck, a tail like a beaver, a squatty body with short front legs, and a long rubbery snout. How could an animal such as this survive, let alone flourish?

When a platypus dives to find its next meal, it closes its eyes, ears, and nose—so how does it find anything? The platypus is the only mammal known to have the use of electroreception. Its nose, or bill, has electroreceptors that can detect tiny electrical currents generated by its prey. These receptors are so sensitive they have been known to detect “artificial shrimp” from real shrimp based on the difference in generated electrical currents.

This strange and unusual creature is a marvelous example of leveraging all one’s assets for maximum advantage. Rather than bemoaning its highly unconventional collection of attributes, it has chosen to use them to its benefit. Ignoring its patchwork outward appearance, it concentrates on enhancing the strengths it has.

Learning to combine its unusual qualities has created a specialized set of skills unique to the platypus. It has learned to rely not just on what it sees or hears, but to trust its nose. In the murky water it could easily be tricked into seeing something in a distorted way. Learning to trust the information it receives through its electroreceptors, it can discover the true picture. The platypus’ nose knows.

Regardless of how unconventional your skill set may be, or the challenging situations you face, adapting and developing strengths can lead to increased capabilities. In fact, your “unconventional” skill set may be exactly what your challenges call for.

Consider making a list of strengths for you and your team. Identify how these strengths can be leveraged to accomplish current and future work needs. Learn to rely on these strengths. Champion the unique assets of others. The combination will lead to the achievement of remarkable or unconventional outcomes.

Application

Think of how often you have disparaged some of your features or capabilities because they are outside the norm. Consider:

  1. Looking at one unusual or unconventional attribute alone may cause you despair. But combining it with others will likely allow you to accomplish surprising results.
  2. View others through the same lens. Combine their nontraditional abilities with those of others on the team. The outcome may be very satisfying

About the Author

John Parker Stewart is a renowned, award-winning author, coach, and speaker. He and his Stewart Leadership team provide coaching and consulting services to clients globally on change management, leadership development, talent management, and team performance.