Leadership Development

The hidden power of "I don't know."

The hidden power of "I don't know."

Yet for this artist, I don’t know had unusual meaning and power.  It expressed his openness to creativity and to collaborating with his brushes, paints, and canvas. He was constrained neither by self-criticism nor by expectations of pre-ordained results.   He was not made weak by his need for the approval of others. He was free to express himself in the moment, to create, to discover. He was able to do things he had never done before with trust and confidence in his ability to listen to the creative energies within him and around him.

How leaders write blank checks

How leaders write blank checks

Part of the problem occurs when leaders create a culture where they are the most important “customer” of everyone in their organization. In these companies, it’s in everyone’s best career interest to make sure the boss is happy, and to treat any request as urgent and important.   Inherent in these cultures are some unchallenged and dangerous assumptions including:

    •    The leader is the smartest one in the room

    •    The leader knows all of the implications of their decisions

    •    The leader is more important than anyone below them

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Leadership requires uncommon sense

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Leadership requires uncommon sense

What we call ‘common sense’ is really a collection of personal experiences and knowledge that we assume everyone else shares.  But it is rarely as common as we assume.  I’m confident that what is ‘common sense’ to an African American from Harlem would be ‘foreign intelligence’ to a small town white southerner like me!  And yet most of us tend to take our knowledge and experience for granted, label these ‘common sense,’ and then judge harshly those who don’t act in concert with our world-view.

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Collaboration and “all that jazz”

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Collaboration and “all that jazz”

Collaboration requires time, patience, and at times, the discipline to listen for the music behind the words. Most executives I know have precious little time for anything that won’t produce a tangible result, quickly. Efficiency and urgency are key. Consequently, busy executives rely too heavily on their immediate judgments and the “certainty of knowing” derived from past experiences.