Candor can be painful, but productive!

Lately I am been paying a great deal of attention to “leadership.”  I think great adventures are led by great leaders and I want to be the best I can be. 

I recently watched an interview of Jack Welch, former CEO of  GE and was fascinated by the way he viewed leadership.

Candor was a phrase that screamed loudly in my head as I listened to the interview.  Simply telling the truth when the truth needs to be told.  Thinking back I have been misled by folks in my life that held back key opinions and lacked the ability to express themselves at the crucial time.

If you don’t talk things out, the truth will eventually act itself out.   In other words face the truth now because soon the truth will arise and it will be have to be handled differently. 

How many times have you witnessed someone holding back the truth in order to protect someone else’s feelings?  Truth does hurt sometimes however it hurts more later if it is not handled!

One of the more destructive ways a company or an organization can fail is what I call conducting “parking lot conversations.” 

This happens when a group of well-meaning folks get together to discuss big things and the loudest get heard and the quiet don’t speak up.  Before you know it, thinking you are on a roll and there are folks in the room completely disengaged and upset.  Unbeknownst by you at the time, however count on hearing it in the rumor mill!

As soon as the meeting is over these folks look for common ground outside of the meeting to engage in negative sentiments that eventually erode the direction of an organization.

I think there are equal amounts of introverts to extroverts however in a meeting they are not represented proportionally.  All ideas need to be heard and discovered.  Committee meetings can often be just platforms for the extroverts.  One on one meetings might be more effective in getting to the meat of an opportunity.    

Knowing this makes for better leaders!

NobleOne

To be candid I know some of you expect me to blog on Sunday mornings however sometimes it just isn't there for me!