Leading = Learning
“Leaders often get stuck in echo chambers that merely reinforce their own ideas, says Harvard Business School Professor Michael Beer. Meanwhile, lower-level employees are often fully aware of the problems that plague a company or the reasons a particular strategy won’t work, but they tend to remain silent, fearful that speaking up could put their careers at risk….
“Leaders often feel like they need to come across as decisive, but if they always act strong and know-it-all, they won’t get anywhere,” Beer says. “People at the top…sometimes [have] a false sense of confidence that they have the answers to everything. But they don’t. [No one person] does.”
How are you making sure you get all the information? Do your employees feel comfortable sharing things with you—or do they think you know if all (or think that you think you know it all)? What about hearing things you don’t agree with you? How do you know if they’re holding something back?
What can you do to make your leadership – and your organization – more accessible and more open to hearing what might be hard to hear? Can you see how that openness might allow you to grow and succeed in new places?
How can you encourage new voices and new ideas?