the wall, the person who has closed his or her mind to new information. You do not want to be this person. You want to be seen as the person who, despite your strongly held views and insights, is always open to new data, new evidence, new patterns of understanding.
• Having said this, remember “open,” in this instance, means “inquisitive . ” It does not mean “immediately accepting of.” The balance you have to strike is between staunchly opinionated at one extreme and, at the other, wishy-washy theorizing. We tend to avoid the former, and we’re suspicious of the latter. The perfect middle ground is to be seen as inquisitive.
How to Win As a Leader
Creator : Your strength is your ability to think things through. As our leader, we see your mind working and it gives us confidence. We know you will make a new sense of things.
• You have incredible ideas. Share your vision with us. What are you creating next? What’s so exciting about it? Why should we go along?
• You excel at keeping it simple. No need for complex graphs or excessive business terminology. When you set a goal, make it clear to all of us why it’s important and what part we play in achieving it. Then, keep that goal in front of us and link everything back to it. Show us how it all ties together.
• Demonstrate your passion for the client’s experience. Show us how simple and easy it can be to make a client feel special. We will share these stories with our colleagues. It makes us proud to align with a leader who cuts through the complexity and reveals how simple it can be to do the right thing.
• Trust us. At times your need to understand everything that’s going on or to control the process slows us down. We don’t mind reporting on progress, but it can distract us from getting the job done. You recruited really good people; let us prove it to you.
• We feel secure with your deliberate nature. We know you’ve asked a million “why”s before presenting a solution or idea to us. We would love to be privy to your process or, better yet, at times included. We feel more connected to work that we had a say in creating.
• Teach and model that when it’s true, the best answer is “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” We appreciate your humility, that you don’t have unreasonable expectations of yourself or any of us. This vulnerability makes it easier for us to connect to you. Also, when you defer to your experts, it creates opportunities for other team members to shine.
• Sometimes you can insulate yourself. We know this is because your mind needs solitude to be productive. Just make sure that you do come up for air often enough for us to connect to you. The sense you create is exciting to us. We need to see you.
How to Win As a Manager
Creator : Your strength is the time you give me. To listen. To consider. To understand before reaching your conclusions.
• When issues arise, take the time to consider all perspectives and investigate what’s been done to address the problem to date. I’ll appreciate that when something goes wrong, you don’t jump right into fixing but acknowledge and salvage my efforts.
• Seek out spontaneous opportunities to explain to us how our actions and efforts are making a difference for our clients. Keep tying what we do back to the “why” of our work. We, your employees, will not go down the street to another company for dollars if we know that what we do here really matters.
• Be crystal clear and consistent with your expectations. Check that we understand by asking us to repeat back what we’ve heard. With this clarity in place, when we’re off track we can self-correct before a curative conversation ever needs to occur. No performance correction should ever come as a surprise.
• You create momentum. It’s incredible to be along for the ride once one of your ideas takes off. Keep communicating what you’re seeing and I’ll
• Having said this, remember “open,” in this instance, means “inquisitive . ” It does not mean “immediately accepting of.” The balance you have to strike is between staunchly opinionated at one extreme and, at the other, wishy-washy theorizing. We tend to avoid the former, and we’re suspicious of the latter. The perfect middle ground is to be seen as inquisitive.
How to Win As a Leader
Creator : Your strength is your ability to think things through. As our leader, we see your mind working and it gives us confidence. We know you will make a new sense of things.
• You have incredible ideas. Share your vision with us. What are you creating next? What’s so exciting about it? Why should we go along?
• You excel at keeping it simple. No need for complex graphs or excessive business terminology. When you set a goal, make it clear to all of us why it’s important and what part we play in achieving it. Then, keep that goal in front of us and link everything back to it. Show us how it all ties together.
• Demonstrate your passion for the client’s experience. Show us how simple and easy it can be to make a client feel special. We will share these stories with our colleagues. It makes us proud to align with a leader who cuts through the complexity and reveals how simple it can be to do the right thing.
• Trust us. At times your need to understand everything that’s going on or to control the process slows us down. We don’t mind reporting on progress, but it can distract us from getting the job done. You recruited really good people; let us prove it to you.
• We feel secure with your deliberate nature. We know you’ve asked a million “why”s before presenting a solution or idea to us. We would love to be privy to your process or, better yet, at times included. We feel more connected to work that we had a say in creating.
• Teach and model that when it’s true, the best answer is “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” We appreciate your humility, that you don’t have unreasonable expectations of yourself or any of us. This vulnerability makes it easier for us to connect to you. Also, when you defer to your experts, it creates opportunities for other team members to shine.
• Sometimes you can insulate yourself. We know this is because your mind needs solitude to be productive. Just make sure that you do come up for air often enough for us to connect to you. The sense you create is exciting to us. We need to see you.
How to Win As a Manager
Creator : Your strength is the time you give me. To listen. To consider. To understand before reaching your conclusions.
• When issues arise, take the time to consider all perspectives and investigate what’s been done to address the problem to date. I’ll appreciate that when something goes wrong, you don’t jump right into fixing but acknowledge and salvage my efforts.
• Seek out spontaneous opportunities to explain to us how our actions and efforts are making a difference for our clients. Keep tying what we do back to the “why” of our work. We, your employees, will not go down the street to another company for dollars if we know that what we do here really matters.
• Be crystal clear and consistent with your expectations. Check that we understand by asking us to repeat back what we’ve heard. With this clarity in place, when we’re off track we can self-correct before a curative conversation ever needs to occur. No performance correction should ever come as a surprise.
• You create momentum. It’s incredible to be along for the ride once one of your ideas takes off. Keep communicating what you’re seeing and I’ll
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