By admin on February 28th, 2010

Has "Telling" Crippled Your Leadership Effectiveness

Many leaders grow up knowing the answer or how to find the answer. It starts in early childhood and all the scaffolding in school and the workplace simply supports this model. You seek out the approval of others by getting the answer right. This feeling of approval becomes addictive.

If you are feeling that pull to be the smartest in the room, the most informed, the one ready to provide the answer, you must first admit you are suffering from this intoxicating high before you can discover what many great leaders have discovered. It is all about the question! Shouldn’t you start asking?

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Just Ask Leadership

Adrian Swinscoe

Hi Garry,
Surely, the sign of great leadership is having the awareness to adapt behaviour according to the task or situation? Therefore, telling would be appropriate in certain situations.

Would you agree?

Adrian
GCohen

Adrian,
Certainly no leader can just ask and the issue with most leaders is that they are spending way to much time telling. I am a fan of Blancher's work on situational leadership and often times, it has been my experience that the leader will underestimate the abilities of their direct reports as well overestimate the importance of any singular event. If you ask most leaders when they should do more comand and control they will say it is during a crisis. Yet, research done by FAA and NASA show that those who ask more in a crisis fair much better – even when it is life or death.

When do you believe it is time to tell verses ask? What percent of time do you think as a leader you should spend asking?

Has "Telling" Crippled Your Leadership Effectiveness

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