As organizations grow, it is increasingly difficult for leaders to stay in touch with the real world. Many leaders understand this unintended consequence of growth and battle against it. Others, less attentive, can gradually lose site of reality. Today’s Challenge: How does a leader stay grounded in reality?
Tag: listen
I recently began a 25-city tour hosting Chess Not Checkers workshops. Over the years, events like these have proved fertile ground for outstanding questions for the Today’s Challenge series. The audience is diverse but has a definite youthful bias – many of the leaders are early in their career. It was a young leader who asked, How do you Win the Heart of someone older and more experienced than you?
Here’s the context for today’s question: “I am a new leader in my organization. However, I am not a new leader – I have leadership experience in a previous company. Unfortunately, my experience doesn’t seem to count here. I’m having trouble getting traction in my new role. What advice do you have for me?”
I’ve had some amazing guides over the years. In Tanzania, my guide was named Teacher; in Botswana, Rutzi saved my life – more than once. And, in Nepal our guide helped us make it to Everest Base Camp and back safely. However, guides are not reserved to adventure settings.
I was in a meeting this week when my leader challenged all of us to pay attention. He reminded us of the importance of what he called “Situational Awareness.” Have you heard that term before? Before we dig in to explore this critical leadership issue, let’s think about what it actually means.
At our annual meeting a few weeks ago, we were fortunate to have several great communicators and thought leaders address our group. One of them was Andy Andrews. One of the things he said that caught my attention was this… “Don’t believe everything you think.”