Plenty of studies indicate “self-awareness” is a key success factor for leaders. I saw this in action last week.
One of our clients is CEO of a medical service company. He’s a strong personality–yet keeps that in check when around his people. He has smart people around him–and he does not want to steamroll them.
What To Do When You Catch Yourself
In this meeting, he had a real problem with a suggestion one of his staff made about a new marketing plan. He vehemently disagreed and told her so in no uncertain terms.
Actually, he crushed her.
But in a surge of self-awareness about what he had just done–blow her and her idea up–he stopped in his tracks and said the following:
“You know Carol, I just said I disagreed with you. That’s not really true. What I should have said is ‘I’m not seeing the value in the proposal you made.’ So can you take me through your thinking so I can understand it better?”
What a great catch!! He caught himself, which is crazy-hard to do. And he repaired the damage.
You might say, “Hell, that’s nothing. I steamroll people all the time.”
Well, maybe you do. And maybe your people don’t mind it. But most human beings want to contribute value–and they like to be respected as they do it.
You, as a leader, must know that your actions and words mean things to your subordinates. And the quicker you can be aware–and catch yourself when you’re ‘out of check’ the more likely you’ll be to bring out the best in your team.
By the way, Carol re-explained her idea and the thinking behind it and he came around a bit. And after they exhanged ideas, they actually came up with something even better than either of them had put forward.
A true collaboration.
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