Mid way through this year, my manager sat us (the team) down to share a bunch of documents and lessons he’d picked up from a recent leadership offsite. As I was cleaning out my office desk last week, I found the documents and scribbled in corners were my top takeaways from the day. I sat down to list them somewhere more permanent and thought it was only fair that they make their way to this blog. Maybe you could add in your top learnings from the year in the comments too.
Know the knowable: This is an anecdote from the offsite, and messages do get slightly modified as they flow down so take the exact incident with a pinch of salt; but the lesson still holds. During a meeting, a CHRO asked her team member a question.
The person began – ‘I am not sure but I think…’.
At this point he was interrupted and asked – ‘what would it take for you to be sure?’
He replied – ‘I’d need to make a quick call.’
‘Then make the call. We’ll wait.’
Short story – the call was made, the answer fetched and no guesswork was required. At the end of the meeting, the CHRO left with – ‘know the knowable. If answers exist, go fetch the answer. Save the thinking for things we need to figure out. Just pick up the phone, send a message – do what it takes to get the guesswork out from what the knowable(s) are’.
This was such a wake up call for me. I am guilty of beginning to assume and guess during a meeting when I don’t know the answer despite knowing someone who is not in the meeting & will likely have the answer ready. While I have often said – ‘I don’t know, I’ll find out and email the group after the meeting’ or messaged the person who has the answer while in the meeting, I have taken the lazy way out at times. Now I have this saying pinned to my office board and maybe in 2024, I will always know the knowable and pull the guesswork out of the picture.
Good judgement comes from experience; and experience comes from bad judgement: There’s always a fear of making blunders and looking the fool. Even worse is the fear of being trapped with the label of being the person who makes poor decisions. However, the brain is a wondrous machine and while it stops us from taking actions that may risk putting us in poor light, it also learns very quickly from those decisions. Having the above sentence in mind has helped me be a little kinder and less judgmental towards myself and others. It is impossible to have good judgement without having made a few bad ones. The sooner we embrace this message, the sooner we can get to the good decisions.
Escalate quickly: Once upon a time, an employee needed urgent medical attention while in front of the office. However, because she had forgotten her badge, she could not be let in for access to first aid. As she lay struggling, the building security was seen dashing in and out bringing supplies to the reception vs letting the employee into the doctor’s room. Now this is a highly exaggerated fake story. However, given our love for policies and following protocol, it isn’t implausible. Sometimes, the policy can be the wrong decision and if we are not in a position to influence the decision, we should not be afraid to escalate it up the chain and quick. Escalation has a bad rap in many organizations. It is seen as a tool to attack a person vs the process when it is actually the other way around. Organizations that punish an escalator (pun not intended) and the person escalated against are creating a culture that goes counter to problem solving at speed. Escalations can help unblock and accelerate and if someone does use it incorrectly, coach to help them use it appropriately vs punish.
All perspectives are true, all perspectives are incomplete: There is a reason why diversity is valued. Diverse perspectives help complete the picture. Enough said.
Not engaging in everything but how much you engage is everything: A few months ago, my month’s challenge was to withdraw from some of the project streams I had signed up for because in an attempt to do everything, I was contributing to nothing. We’ve all been through this. Yet, when a new year comes rolling in, we somehow believe that this year we’d be a productive monster and be able to chew more than we did last year. Does not happen. Keep a buffer of 20% because work and life are unpredictable. Engage deeply with the things you choose to do vs killing yourself trying to engage in everything.
There you go! Those are my five that I will a 100% consider as I set my goals for the year ahead. Number 1 is without doubt my favorite. Which one do you resonate with the most and what else should I be adding to this list?
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