INSIGHTS (on leadership/self-leadership)
I recently came across some social psychology work that really resonated with me given my three-decades of leadership experience and the volumes of research I’ve conducted in this space. Summarized in a Harvard Business Review article, the authors detail the four thinking skills of leaders that make them standout. Here are those skills (excerpted from the article and edited for brevity). I also provide a link for you to get some “quick hit” help on strengthening these essential thinking skills:
Critical thinking pushes you to pause and question assumptions. Instead of reacting quickly, you stop and analyze. Use it when experts disagree on a solution, when traditional approaches fail to solve a problem, or when the symptoms of a problem keep recurring.
Resource: this issue of LEAD ON!
Expert thinking is born from deep knowledge in a particular field, developed through years of experience, training, and practice. Use it in when a quick response is needed and well-defined rules are in place (as in a crisis), or when prior experience/knowledge offers a clear path forward.
Resource: pages 69 -77 of The Mentally Strong Leader, which cover how to perform under pressure and how to shine, not shrink, in crisis.
Strategic thinking is about taking a long-term, high-level perspective, looking beyond the immediate situation. Use it when making big decisions with long-term consequences, thinking about your team’s future, or trying to anticipate how market forces and customer needs might change.
Resource: This strategic thinking course on LinkedIn Learning from LinkedIn’s Chief Operating Officer.
Systems thinking is the ability to see the interconnectedness of all the problems at hand. Use it when you need to understand a complex situation or want to identify patterns and relationships within your organization or industry.
Resource: pages 270-271 of The Mentally Strong Leader, which cover how to elevate your predictive ability.
IMPERFECTIONS (a mistake I’ve made)
Prominent travel writer Rick Steves points out just how prevalent fear is in today’s world, and how it unknowingly shapes our worldview. Steves says it even affects how we talk about travel today:
“In the old days, people said, ‘Bon voyage—have a good trip.’ Now, what do they say? ‘Have a safe trip.’ When somebody tells me, ‘Have a safe trip,’ I’m inclined to say, ‘Well, you have a safe stay at home.’”
I think many of us make the mistake of underestimating just how insidious fear is, how widely and deeply it seeps into our lives and alters our thinking and behavior in unhelpful ways. It’s certainly a mistake I’ve made before. I held out unnecessarily long before leaving the corporate world to become a speaker, writer, trainer – largely based on a bevy of my own, unfounded fears.
I’ve written before about how to overcome fear in many forms, here on fear of failure, here on fear of change, here on fear of criticism, and even signs you’re leading from a place of fear. My point in this issue is to simply ask you to pause, and, with brute honesty, consider this question:
“Where in my life is fear showing up and blocking/altering my path in unwanted ways?”
IMPLEMENTATION (one research-backed strategy, tip, or tool)
If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will. A bad boss. They can make your life, outlook, everything, absolutely miserable. Here are proven tips to help you cope with a terrible boss as I share in my book, Leading from the Middle (regardless of the type of bad boss, of which there are many).
1. Don’t label.
When you mentally or verbally label your boss as hopelessly arrogant, incompetent, uncaring, etc., you’ve put up another big barrier between you and any hope of a good relationship, let alone partnership. To prevent labeling, keep the next point in mind.
2. Know that you’re only seeing part of the picture.
No boss or employee wakes up wanting to be terrible. The odds are quite high that something is going on behind the scenes contributing to their overall odiousness. Try to discern what else might be going on in your boss’s life if they’ll share. Bring empathy, not animosity, to the table.
3. Assume you’ll have to do 80 percent of the work.
Having a bad boss means you’ll likely have to work much harder at the relationship then they’re willing to and be far more flexible to adapt to their challenging traits. Nobody said it was fair. It most certainly isn’t. But it’s something you must learn to accept. But also know when to draw the line. Be firm and confident in how you deal with your bad boss and clear on what behavior you simply can’t tolerate.
4. Be mindful of their moods and triggers.
Why set them off unnecessarily? Talk to others that have at least weathered working for your boss to learn more here, and to learn more in general about how to operate with him or her.
5. Be respectful of the position, if not the person.
It’s important to hold at least the position your boss holds in high regard. Hierarchy has been around forever for a reason.
6. Turn your boss’s weaknesses into opportunities for you to shine.
I’m not saying to upstage your boss, just to draw strength from the fact that you have the opportunity to better serve your organization by helping offset your boss’s shortcomings. That’s a far better path forward than letting your anger towards your boss escalate.
7. Want to change the relationship as much as you need to.
You have to genuinely want to fix the relationship and put in the effort to do so (again remembering that the burden will likely fall disproportionately on you). Merely complaining won’t change anything. The easy thing is to avoid the problems you’re having with your boss. The right thing is to address those problems.
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