One of the ironies about being truly open in North American Business is
that you can be perceived as weak. Even though listening/directing/leading
are effective ways to get the job done with maximum commitment of your
people, executives are often looking for the 'cowboy' with the answers.
It is almost necessary to have a double standard, behaving like the human
dynamo in front of the people who control your progress, while doing the
right leadership activities behind the scenes. Such is the nature of much
current executive thinking or behaviour.
A Board of Directors is unlikely to choose a CEO because of great
facilitation skills. When a change is in the offing, they will tend to a)
pick a clone of the current incumbent if things are going right, or b)
shop for a saviour if they are in trouble. Neither one of these choices is
likely to be because they are a champion of LO.
As Mr Mooney points out, being open and an active listener is a good
strategy but I would add "as long as you are not being judged during the
event". We used to say "Don't confuse selling with installing" to capture
the double standard needed to succeed in business. In a similar thread,
don't call people bureaucrats just because they are caught up in a
bureacracy. It will hurt their self-image and they must respond by
considering you to be the problem.
Hoping to stimulate dialog as always. Please attack at your convenience
(and with respect!). Tks...Keith
--Keith Cowan <72212.51@CompuServe.COM>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>