We met on the train heading from Edinburgh to Oban on the western coast of Scotland.  He got on in Glasgow and immediately made an impression.

It was 9:00 in the morning.  He was wearing a 3 piece suit.  He had a bit of a swagger, or should I say a ‘stagger’.  He walked up to where my wife and I were sitting on one side of a table.  The seats on the other side of the table were vacant.  Seats on trains in Europe are often on either side of a table.  You sit facing the people opposite from you for the duration of your travel.

“Oh, you look like a lovely couple.  Mind if I join you?”, he inquired in a beautifully lilting Scottish accent.

“It would be our pleasure”, we replied.

He was polite, portly and a prolific conversationalist.  He was old enough to be our grandpa.  We guessed he was in his 80s.

“Once a year my wife lets me out of the house and I take a train trip to Oban to get away.  Want a wee hit?”

The latter part of his explanation for being on the train he offered after he had taken a “wee hit” himself from his flask.   I thanked him for his kind offer, but declined.  I have no doubt that he had already been taking many wee hits from his flask – undoubtedly filled with one of Scotland’s most popular and precious exports.

We immediately engaged in conversation.  In fact, we talked all the way to Oban.  All the while as we engaged in deeper communications he would regularly offer me a wee hit from his flask.  He grew increasingly declarational in his communication style as he began to drift further away from reality on the wings of his beautiful beverage.

He has a favourite expression he regularly offered as we chatted.  He would repeatedly say,

“Well that may be true, but what happens when the immovable object meets the unstoppable force?  Want a wee hit?”

He got us thinking, what does happen when the immovable object meets the unstoppable force?

Our fine foreign friend created a fabulous moment and memory for us on our Scottish tour so many years ago now.  In fact, my wife often uses his expression to refer to the two of us: she is the immovable object and I am the unstoppable force.  She is the brake, I am the accelerator.

I used to think we were opposites, but we have now learned to be complementary.  Her strengths are my weaknesses, my strengths are her weaknesses.  We have learned to do this through mutual respect.  I need who she is to be the best I can be and she needs who I am to be the best she can be.

This is the same as on any leadership team.  Entrepreneurs are the gas pedal, they are the unstoppable force.  Entrepreneurs need brakes, they need some immovable objects.  An entrepreneur’s ability to succeed is dependent on his or her awareness of their weaknesses so they can understand who they need to hire to complement them, to bring balance.

Oftentimes an entrepreneur needs the kind of person who frustrates them – the immovable object.  Here is where leadership teams succeed or fail.  Will the leader see their need for people who bring a different perspective?  Will they see their need for someone to ‘oppose’ them?  Will they see the need for someone to put the brakes on?

If the entrepreneurial leader sees their need for a more administrative leadership style the organization can grow and flourish based on mutual respect: I need your perspective and you need my perspective.  Together we are better.  Together we synergize – the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Leadership teams are like a good marriage; opposites attract and through mutual respect they learn to accomplish more together.  We need each other to be the best we can be.  I need your strengths to compensate for my weaknesses and vice versa.

What happens when the immovable object meets the unstoppable force?  Amazing things if they respect each other for who they are and work together synergistically.  Disaster if they don’t.