>I find that people who sit in the greys tend to be very worried about their public perception or have very little passion beyond maintaining personal comfort.

Or, you know, the issue is grey. Why take a strong stand when you have plenty of reasons not to?

The funny thing is that I find the opposite. I call it the "cowardice of taking a stand". Being a fence-sitter in this culture is fairly negatively perceived (except out of academia). As such, I notice people are very reluctant to state the nuances - they're afraid of being labeled a fence sitter. Cowards, in harsher words.

>The people I look for are those that take strong stands but are willing and able to adjust and even quickly reverse those stances.

The people I look for are those who ponder over, and see the flaws in their stands before becoming a strong proponent.

Wisdom is usually inversely proportional to posturing.

This is very reminiscent of: "Do you want a fantastic firefighter on your team, or one who prevents fires?" The firefighter is very noticeable because he keeps saving teams from crises. The one who prevents fires doesn't get noticed because there never was a fire. Poor managers reward firefighters.

I remember when I was interviewing for my last job, I would try to pose indirect questions to the potential manager to get an idea on whether they can handle uncertainty from their employees. If not, I would move on to the next interview. Managers who say stuff like "I never accept 'I don't know' for an answer" are to be avoided like the plague. They end up with a team of employees who are pretty adept at BS.

Society wants people who take strong stands, and your comment is a perfect example of it.