Then I said 'you've been getting it wrong all along' |
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Interesting Random Act of Leadership this week.
The details don't matter, but suffice to say that someone acting from strengths was doing some REALLY COOL work - and then it bumped into an 'interested' leader. Who proceeded to chip away at the work with decidedly directed passive-aggression, filtering content, reshaping value, until the work itself was as homogeneous as oatmeal.
[I love oatmeal, by the way, just always have to add nuts, raisins and others odds and ends to add interest]
And, as I observed this happening, I wondered just why it is that so many leaders seem to feel an overwhelming urge to nullify the strengths and talents of the people they've hired to get things done. Sure, I could go on a rant here about Theory X, Taylorism and all the other things that I write about pretty regularly, but the thought I wanted to share tonight is the misplaced myth that perfection exists, and that it was fashioned by our leaders.
Think about it... Scan your in-house newsfeed... Read your company press releases... There is no failure. And, because there's no failure - leaders build the myth that they've never failed.
Except...
- The company isn't succeeding.
- The shareholders are unhappy.
- People are leaving.
[insert whichever symptom best describes your organization]
But the leader isn't failing. The company yes, but the leader? Hearty belly laugh, shrug of shoulders and the studied lift of the knowing eyebrow.
[delusion is a powerful thing]
So, here is this deluded, successful, never-failed leader, drifting along in her cloud of 'never-rocked-a-boat' and all of a sudden, this younger
[it's not an age thing, but this was the symptom this week]
more junior team-member who is... just... er... speaking a language the leader doesn't understand. And they have data that isn't like the good old days... And it's pretty... But it's got... hang on a second... does it state an opinion? Really?
Who is this... this... jumped up underling to dare to speak an opinion to their elders-and-betters. Just who do they think they are?
And, as I observed the behavior resulting from this friction, a single thought kept going through my head:
The junior worker was succeeding where the leader had never managed to. The team member was, in essence, saying "you've been getting it wrong all along".
In other words, the leader's denial was shown up to be exactly what it was.
And, instead of welcoming that fact for the GLORIOUS learning opportunity it could have been, not to mention the engagement that would have flowed from discussion of the opinion and findings, what did the leader do?
Re-write the powerpoint slides. Boil up some oatmeal.
And erase any sign that a team-member's strengths had been in play.
This is, perhaps, the most vicious version of micro-management and misplaced control: rewriting the world to nullify the strengths that reflect our weaknesses.
To some extent, we've all done it, of course... Denial is just too fundamental a human reaction to threat (perceived or real). But while that's too true to be denied, at the core of the Strengths Springboard we have to place the joy of yielding another's strengths. And we MUST start with leaders, because if they can't do it, authentically, honestly and without revisionism, then the symbology is just too strong to change the organization.
So, start today - help a leader welcome the fact that they've been wrong all along, and seek out the strengths that can help them make it right after all.
Enough oatmeal! Let's find the nuts and raisins!
V
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