Negative Capability

Understanding Negative Capability

At first sight, the word negative may seem inappropriate for defining a leader, especially as leader has such overwhelmingly positive connotations. In this context, however, negative does not imply a judgment, either moral or practical. Think rather of negative and positive poles in an electric or magnetic field: The effective force is generated in the flow of energy between the two. Leadership tends to be thought of in terms of the positive pole only—the attributes and abilities that allow the leader to promote decisive action even in the face of uncertainty. Negative capability names the other pole, that is, the capacity to sustain reflective inaction. In certain situations, a resolution can be achieved through the exercise of what we might call active, or positive, capabilities, such as the application of knowledge from previous experience and the ability to transfer resources from elsewhere or to influence others to trust. At other times, however, the better response is to wait until insights come, resources become available, or relationships develop. This requires a capability that manifests itself in behaviors such as waiting, observing, and listening—behaviors the are the complementary opposites of active, interventionist behaviors.

This capability is, therefore, negative in three senses. First, it is negative in that it represents the opposite of such positive capabilities as action and [Page 1078]intervention. As mentioned above, the metaphor of the magnetic field applies here. Second, it is negative because the situations in which it is most useful are themselves negative; that is, they are characterized by a lack: A leader may not know what to do, may not have adequate resources, or may not trust or be trusted. Here an appropriate metaphor is of negative space in painting: Negative space is the space that surrounds the positive forms of defined objects. An artist can reveal an object's shapes and relationships by ignoring the object itself and drawing instead the negative spaces around it. Third, this capacity can be termed negative because the behaviors that support it are generally viewed negatively. In the discourse of organizations, they tend to be accorded only low status; they include such activities as waiting, observing, withdrawing, listening, adapting, patience, and passivity. This suggests the metaphor of a photographic negative, which can reveal details that might be overlooked in the positive image because they seem so familiar.

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