manager’s manager isn’t going to accept anything other than a quick and sure answer.
No manager with whom I’ve ever worked expected me to predict the future; every manager with whom I’ve ever worked expected me to assist in planning for the future.
You are the leader in these situations. Your first goal is to be aware of your own moral priorities, your values, what your role is in these circumstances and how you are approaching these problems. The first place you look is within yourself. Ask, do I have a pre-existing prejudice about anyone or anything involved in this situation? What do I know about these people and circumstances and what don’t I know? Where and to whom do I need to go to listen and develop a better understanding?
You practice the rule “Listen more, talk less.” That means you pursue your open-ended questions (What can you tell me to help me understand this problem? How do you see this situation? What do you suggest we do to resolve this?) by hearing what each person has to say; by demonstrating with your attention span, facial expressions, body language, and follow up questions that what is being said is of value; and by respecting each viewpoint (especially the ones with which you might otherwise personally disagree). And although the workplace is assuredly not a democracy, it must be a place of fairness. The significant feature of a fair environment is not majority rule; it is the minority’s ability to speak safely and appropriately and be heard.
Rather than being confused or overwhelmed by conflicting information, you are strengthened in your problem resolution and decisionmaking abilities by having a larger picture of what is involved. Remember the Teamsters who suggested ways to cut their overtime. I would have never arrived at that conclusion if I hadn’t suspended my personal prejudices (Cost savings suggested by Teamsters!?). Respect everyone.
Instead of avoiding ambiguous information, welcome it. One of the benefits of ambiguity is that by considering it, you make yourself think about the problem in more depth. You know the management tendency to jump into a problem without taking the time to understand all the issues. Resist it. There are textures to problem situations that are revealed only when there is sufficient input. Do you want the quickest answer or the right answer in an appropriate time? Leaders appreciate Samuel Johnson’s wisdom of two-hundred and thirty years ago, “Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.”
“ . . . commitment to openness means we have to make an effort to listen to others, to integrate their perspectives where possible, and to tolerate differences as long as the differences are peaceful. Testing our beliefs in the crucible of others’ perspectives will either make our beliefs stronger or create new intellectual alloys we never thought possible.” Max Borders, Rational Mysticism for a Young Movement
We haven’t touched on that tenth leadership element, “Assume good intent, but document everything,” until now.
The legal and regulatory world in which we work requires us as managers to protect our colleagues, our organization and ourselves from the ugly consequences of charges of deliberate unfairness, unlawful prejudice and a disrespectful atmosphere at work. These charges, whether they are not formalized but only whispered, they are made in the organization’s complaint process, or they are filed as legal actions, cost more than just managers’ time to investigate and attorney’s fees. They cost more than your potential personal liability that may be involved. These charges destroy the workplace if left unchecked and they deteriorate the organization’s credibility with both current employees and prospective hires and customers. They undermine productivity directly.
You know that most work problems are people issues. You are the leader of an important group of people, your team. Where there is a problem or a situation that is building into a problem, you are responsible for knowing about it and resolving it. In recent decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “. . . companies can be held liable for the illegal harassing behavior of supervisors even when top managers had no idea that it was going on and were not negligent in any way.”
The Court is saying that you as the manager, as the leader must be aware of and are responsible for what is happening around you, even when your colleagues don’t tell you to your face.
This is part of the mantle of your leadership responsibility. You’re not expected to be clairvoyant but you are required to listen. If there is whispering, you must hear it. When your colleagues are testy with one another, you must inquire why. When productivity slows, you seek out the human reasons. Your people want to talk to you and they want you to listen – make that happen all the time because you don’t have the time to not listen.
When you are faced with a problem and you go through the steps to resolve it, nothing serves to protect all involved more than your documenting what you learn. A simple set of notes that are maintained properly are usually all that is needed. In a later chapter of this discussion, we will talk about documentation in more detail. So far as your leadership duties are concerned, you entrust your findings in any problem resolution instance to a documented format. While assuming good intent on the part of everyone involved in the information gathering and resolution process, you safeguard your involvement adequately through documentation.
Your agreement with your own manager is to take the right action in a reasonable time that finally resolves important issues and sets the foundation for lasting solutions. Sometimes you have to stretch just beyond your normal reach to grasp the truth. Your credibility and track record for bringing back the truth are the down payments on that agreement.
Our first set of management tools is the set with which we are born – our inherent humanity, our moral compass and our soul. As we grow and mature, these tools are honed by our experiences with parents, family, friends and the world outside of our homes and schools.
We learn how to recognize each tool and its utility in different situations. Life demonstrates how to adapt our approach to fit each situation successfully and make ethical choices.
When we are listening with open hearts and minds, we learn and carry that knowledge forward with us to face new situations. And we do this with enormous personal satisfaction, a satisfaction that comes from within.
Clara Knopfler survived the Nazi death camps with her mother. When she gives witness to her experiences now she relates the following piece of advice from her father,
“Always learn as much as you can because no one can take away what is in your head.”
Her father meant not only book learning but also the learning gained through sometimes bitter experiences that test our humanity, values, ethics and spirit. This learning transcends graduate degrees and case studies. This learning is imprinted on your soul. Listen to it because it is the most human part of you, the part that knows right from wrong, decency from disrespect and how you want to treat and be treated by your colleagues. It is the opposite of selfishness.
The most fundamental part of your role as a leader is to use that learning to direct how you apply all of your tools to fulfill your managerial responsibilities. The author of the classic management text “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies,” Jim Collins concluded in a 2001 study of leadership published in the Harvard Business Review that the best leaders “possess a paradoxical mixture of personal humility and professional will. They are timid and ferocious. Shy and fearless.” According to Collins, these leaders, whom he calls “Level 5, great leaders,” exhibit “the virtue of chivalry.” They are self-effacing, generous of spirit and praise, committed to excellence and patient.
“There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.”
The principle is very clear to me: a self-centered person cannot be truly successful either within
