Have you ever worked in a team where the rate of innovation was low to nonexistent or known of a company that needed a turnaround? Or have you or a leader you have known ever seemed to have hit a wall in terms of leadership growth and development? A common factor that constrains team growth is unhealthy levels of pride, especially in the team’s leader. Here is a story and tool that can help turn around all of that.
At a large consumer products company, a product manager was forced to work with a haughty executive who was wont to wear his degrees on his sleeve. With his J.D. and MBA along with two undergraduate degrees, he was quick to say, “I have a degree in ....” His comments would irritate the sense out of his coworkers. One day while reviewing a problem, he said to the product manager, “You know, I have a degree in this area, and ....” The product manager interrupted and said, “Even thermometers have degrees, and you know where people stick thermometers.” She was able to say it with a smile and in a way that even he laughed. She had a gift with communication as well as a level of humility that this well-degreed executive did not.
No leadership virtue is as important as humility in accelerating growth, a turnaround or innovation. That is not so much the case because mistakes must be admitted but because the source of solutions will come from without, not within. One’s personal education and experience are probably not key sources of the solutions that will be needed. The strength of the relationships you have and the process for synergizing those relationships—internal and external to your organization—will be the source of many ideas that will be the steps to your growth and turnaround.
A best practice to show and prove your humility is to have confidential blind-spot sessions. This is the simple but potentially painful practice of inviting your team, one by one, to meet with you and share your greatest blind spots that most hinder you and your company’s growth. Ask team members to point out your character missteps with specific examples, and if they wish, then they can discuss how those missteps might have impacted others. When you hear, understand, acknowledge and respond to weaknesses that your subordinates bring to you in this setting, this will do more to bond your relationships and tap the full potential of your people than many a management tactic.
These confidential blind-spot sessions are much more than the question, “What are the things that your superior does that most hinder you?” Your people will bring up your character flaws and habits that may seem unrelated to your effectiveness, but they will bring up them for a reason. They will test you with smaller issues to see how you react, they will notice if you take notes to confirm what you’ve heard, and they will expect that you not make excuses for the examples but that you acknowledge them and ask for help in keeping you accountable to develop better character in the future. As a result, you will see people and your team transform before your eyes.
This one practice alone has saved bankrupt companies. Turning around a company is first about turning around the people, and the first turnaround is you!
The quality and strength of humility in an organization, especially as exhibited by the top echelon of leaders, can significantly impact the organization’s potential to start a turnaround, and its ability to innovate.
