ELEPHANT ALERT!

(If you know it all, then this isn’t for you.)

Curiously, this blog deals with something everyone knows. Yet, astonishingly, just because humans have the capacity to know something, it doesn’t mean we have the ability to do it.

As you become more knowledgeable can you prove that you’re becoming more effective as a leader?

Here’s the elephant in the office: Too often we hear: “My boss can’t keep his mouth shut. He has to interject everywhere.” Perhaps there’s a “code of conduct for leaders” that states the boss has the final say in meetings and should be involved in every step of every initiative.

Because such an approach shuts down other people, the know-it-all boss then must become the do-it-all boss.

STOMP THE ELEPHANT

After a keynote in Ohio a man named Steve approached us. “The power of understanding that everyone wants to be great is amazing. When the company decided to spin off our division, I had a problem: I didn’t know any more than the team did!”

“Rather than make something up, I asked a question: ‘Whether you stay with the company or go, what are three things you’re going to do to make the new company more successful than ever?'”

“I was stunned. Their ideas were light years ahead of anything I could come up with,” Steve reports. “Moving forward, they executed flawlessly.”

Steve reminds us that great leadership doesn’t mean you’re the smartest person in the room – and that your job is to leverage the talent around you, not dominate it.

A challenge: This week ask questions 10% more – and keep your mouth closed 10% more. You really don’t know it all, which means you don’t have to do it all.

Where will you lead – where will you stomp elephants – today?