Blind Leadership
It’s trivia night, and a group is gathered for the competition. Question number one:
Who was the first European to discover North America?
You may or may not be surprised to hear that most teams wrote down “Christopher Columbus” as their answer. In reality, Columbus never made it north of the Caribbean!
It’s shocking how easily one can believe something false for a long time without ever verifying its truth.
The reason some of us believe that Columbus discovered North America is simple — we heard it somewhere, sometime. And as the incorrect statement got perpetuated and repeated, we started to believe it. When there is no new input about a certain topic, there is no reason for our minds to doubt what we know about it. The blatantly false becomes a fact.
These kinds of scenarios happen in our organizations, reinforcing misconceptions among leadership. As leaders, we must make difficult decisions and provide direction to our teams to create a meaningful impact (and, hopefully, a positive legacy).
On a day-to-day basis, you as a leader are getting constant feedback and input from your boss, your peers, and your team and must sort through it all to determine what represents reality as opposed to your own distorted perception, which problems need immediate attention and which need more exploration before a solution is put into place.
Have you ever been in a meeting where a manager is making generalizations like the following?
This entire project is screwed up.
We are falling apart. Things are getting worse.
This situation is dangerous, and somebody is going to get hurt.
While such sweeping generalizations are seldom true, they can influence our attitudes about our work and towards our team. Generalizations drive strong emotional responses—fear, worry, doubt. And, as with that errant “fact” about Christopher Columbus, the more we hear a generalization repeated, the more we tend to believe it’s true. After multiple repetitions with no contradicting facts, these types of statements can easily become everyone’s reality. Often these alternative realities send teams in the wrong direction, promote reactive decision-making, and actually create the negative conditions they describe.
These types of extreme statements can become even more dangerous when they trigger fear. Statements like “we will hurt somebody,” “we will all lose our jobs,” and “we are heading for bankruptcy” can quickly trigger primitive self-preservation responses in all of us and cause us to react without thinking.
So, what can we do to prevent this?
First, it helps to make a habit of asking people to describe the supporting data behind their statements. If we examine the evidence, we can determine whether or not what someone is saying is reasonable. This way, we can avoid accepting generalizations as truth when they’re presented to us and, at the same time, find out what people are thinking about and deal with their concerns.
Second, we can regulate people who are feeling insecure by “talking it through.” It’s important that we not ignore the way someone feels — after all, their perceptions are their reality. We should talk with them to gain a better understanding of why they or others around them feel uncertain or worried.
Third, trust but verify! Many times, concerns and complaints overheard in the workplace represent the beliefs of more than one employee. Buying into the “wisdom of the crowd” can influence us to accept statements at face value. Instead, trust that the issue is important, but verify the facts behind it. Go to the employees and to the source and ask them to explain (without accusing them of distorting the facts!). Use data and observations to sort through claims that may be exaggerated or too broad, and help others do the same.
The more we use these practices to acknowledge people’s emotions while also discerning fact from fiction, the more integral their approach becomes to the way we lead and the ways our teams think and react. This approach will help you as a leader to become more resilient and rational in unexpected and highly emotional situations. The outcome, on a large scale, is a culture that shows respect for people’s emotions while understanding the factors at play project-to-project, improving the performance of your business overall. A true leader understands and responds to both dimensions.
Originally published at kintla.io.
