When you start a business, you don't need to know how to do absolutely everything. For example, if you are opening an event planning company, you don't freak out because you don't know graphic design. You just need to know what looks good and then hire a talented specialist to design all of your invitations. Your role as the boss is to oversee a bunch of specialists who are the best in their niche.
6 comments:
This is 100% true, I would much rather work for someone who cares about what I have to say then someone who never thinks of my opinion as valuable. In our Hawk vs. Handsaw class we talked about status and the topic of being a good leader means you are also a listener. We did an activity that ranked people by status from 1-6 one being the one with the highest rank. In our situation one came across as rude and obnoxious by being a little bit of a jerk and treating the others in the group as if they were lower and insignificant. Never letting them get a word in, cutting them off or if they did suggest something passing it off as a bad idea. As we finished our instructor said that you can be a one but act like a good guy and in the situation 2-6 will respect you instead of hate you.
I truly believe in the idea that the best quality that a leader in needs to have is being a fantastic listener. When leading a team it is important to listen to your team. They will be the ones who will inform you if the task is going well, and if it is going wrong. If you aren't listening to them than you will have no idea of how things are going.
This article just reaffirms what I believe, leadership requires a two way flow of communication and information. The leader that is receptive to information and ideas from his subordinates will most definitely have the advantage over one who does not. It simply is silly to not utilize the full potential of your team. Granted, if your subordinate is an idiot, maybe listening to them is not advisable. Yet, I would argue that in most scenarios, there is almost always something to gain by listening to those under you.
Great article! Many of the techniques outlined are completely new to me but make a lot of sense, and I can see how they would promote good work relationships and a positive company culture. We always say that good leaders must be good listeners but this article actually outlines how to put that into effect in your company. I especially like the “Kick "But" With the Impossibility Question”; I myself am guilty of censoring my own ideas because I think that they are not feasible. This approach is such a smart way of getting people to let you know what change they actually want to see as opposed to what they imagine is within the scope of the company’s range of action. I’m not always a super attentive person, and being a good listener is something that I constantly try to become better at. This article is a good reminder of why it’s so important to work on interpersonal skills in that specific lens.
This past summer, I worked at an event management company. About halfway through my time with the company, the owners implemented weekly meetings where the entire staff got together to discuss not only what their plans and goals were for the week, but also what sort of changes they would like to see and what challenges they anticipated themselves facing in the next week. I experienced this weekly meeting completely transform the attitudes of both the company's owners as well as all of the employees. It was so clear that the employees were begging to express their ideas to the owners and their colleagues.
I think the idea of listening is important in all fields, but it is especially helpful in creative fields. Artists are vulnerable creatures, and if they feel as if they cannot express their thoughts and ideas, their creativity is limiting. This article does a great job at outlining the different techniques leaders can use to start conversations with their employees. The next step is to take what employees are saying and somehow put their words into action.
This reminds me of an interview I was just reading with Bob Iger and other members of the exectutive management team at Disney. Iger was stressing the double sided nature of how when managing you must first and foremost have the right people working for you, doing what they do best. And then as extension of that, as the boss of all those people, you have to actually let them do their job! This is how a really strong company functions. The way he said that he did this was by spending most of his time listening and asking questions, as was the subject of this article. I think often our leadership falls apart in our work because we are lacking one of those two components. Either its an ego maniac boss who wont listen to people, or its a reasonable boss who feels like they cant trust the people who work for them because they are not very good at their jobs
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