Greetings from Air Canada 034 enroute to Toronto.
I had a wonderful conversation yesterday with a director from the board of a large credit union here in Canada. I was interviewing him for a project I’m on with that particular board. In the course of the one hour conversation he gave me three great ’leadership’ lines. And I mean great lines:
1. “I have children, grandchildren and great grandchildren – they are always on my mind”
2. “I don’t know how much I need to understand”
3. “I think [credit union x] is outgrowing me”
It may interest you to know that these pearls of wisdom came not from a ‘professional’ board member, not an accountant, or someone with an MBA, but a card carrying union member from a factory floor. Let’s consider each of these:
1. “I have children, grandchildren and great grandchildren – they are always on my mind”
Leadership is at least in part about moving towards a vision; and not simply about the next quarter’s results or making ‘budget’. Keeping in mind how our decisions and behaviours today will have an impact on future generations is a vital part of our work. To be sure boards need to have much longer horizon’s than department managers for example, but the lesson remains; what is the legacy we are leaving for the next generation of colleagues, what kind of workplace do we want to have now, and what kind of workplace do we aspire to having? Or put another way, is this a workplace I’d be comfortable having my child/grandchild/great grandchild work in? And if the answer to that is no, what do I need to do or who do I need to be to make a difference?
2. “I don’t know how much I need to understand”
Both of these next two lines speak to humility. (See also the work of Jim Collins in ‘Good to Great’ on humility) A large issue for leaders is “data smog.” We are smothered by information, opinions, concerns, risks, data, reports, whitepapers, discussion papers, emails, voicemails not to mention the information that gets sent to us by well meaning authors like me! This director was asking an important question for boards and for managers, do I need to know everything? Do I need to be an expert in all of the fields that my job/role might touch? I’ve learned that the answer to such questions is about literacy. Leaders generally need to be able to read and comprehend (and if you’re reading this, you’re on the right track). And we need to be financially literate; to be able to read the story that the financial reports are telling us. And we need to be interpersonally literate, to be able to work with and through people while enhancing them and serving their need to grow and develop. And we need to have an evolving and developing expertise in a certain area. And then, we need to be able to co-operate and learn with each other in the areas where those areas intersect. For example, I have a certain expertise in working with and through people, and I might have a colleague who has a certain expertise in financial statements. I am literate in financials but not expert, and say she is literate interpersonally but not expert. In short, she and I could make a good team, serving and coaching each other. How much do I need to understand? I need to be literate enough to know when I need an expert.
3. “I think the organization is outgrowing me”
The second of the great humility lines. And the opposite is also true, I could be outgrowing the organization. In either case, the key is self awareness. As leaders, we need to know when it’s time to leave. This may be true at a couple of levels; for example, in my relationship with a trainee, she may be ‘outgrowing’ my coaching style, and it’s time for me to leave that aside. Or it may be that the issues and concerns that are important to me are losing their importance, the team is ‘growing’ in a different direction and it’s time for me to leave that issue or concern aside. Whichever is the case, I am the only barometer of how I’m feeling. Sometimes the best leadership activity is to leave it alone.
May this week be a week of legacy and humility.