Better.

'A critical task of leadership is to protect space for the expression of people's doubts'.

Peter Block

Gordon's weekly meeting rant was an extended version that day.

I sat on my side of the desk and he on his and I did not interrupt because I had nothing to say.

I had to be ready with something wise when he eventually finished. Supportive words that would reassure him and affirm his conviction that the staff member was wrong and he was right. Something boss-like.

I had nothing.

His cadence signalled that he was drawing to a close and that it would be my turn.

Nothing.

He'd stopped talking and was looking at me. My cue. Nope. I let the silence run on because I had no boss-worthy words.

'Do your job, boss,' his folded arms taunted.

I considered whether this was the moment when I did that brave thing that I'd read about and shrugged and said 'Gordon, I don't know.' I was sure I'd read that people admired that.

But I knew Gordon too well and he wouldn't. He was smart and practical. He loved solving problems and assumed the same in others. Yet he wasn't acting smart or practical or curious today. Maybe I could get away with a lazy answer, given that he was tossing me lazy questions. So unlike Gordon.

Wait.

Yes.

Something better than admitting I Don't Know.

'Gordon,' I began, forming words as I spoke them and not retrieved from the memory of a management book.

'This is not you. You're better than this.'

I named the thing that had been choking my words.

'You're better than this. I know because I know you. I know because you've told me so.'

Gordon laughed.

'Yes. Remember what you told me at your job interview?'

'No. What?'

'Your answer when I asked you how you would respond to difficult staff members like the one you've struck today?'

'No. I don't remember.'

'You told me that it was like playing the piano. You even mimed the actions. Sometimes you had one hand playing a melody at one end while the other one kept a rhythm going down the other. 'Just keep that rhythm going,' you said. 'It all combines to make the music.'' I want to see more of that Gordon than the one whinging in front of me today.'

Gordon was smiling.

'You liked that piano metaphor? Fooled you, didn't I?' he said.

'No. Now get back to that rhythm work.'

Gordon's faith in me that I knew him led us both back to ourselves.

Beyond.

Listening is Stepping Back.

Listening is the beginning of Leading - Create the Space. 

Listen beyond your answer and towards theirs.  

'You make other people smart by how you listen to them.'

- Steven Tomlinson

Consequences.

The Australian Electoral Commission gave another example of Good Decision Making today. 

Ed Killesteyn the AEC Commissioner was interviewed on Radio National on the decision by the AEC to declare the Senate result in Western Australia despite the disappearance of 1375 votes.

He began by acknowledging the 'gravity' of the situation and apologising to the electors.

He said that he was left with 'a nagging and almost irreconcilable doubt' about the result of the WA Senate election. 

The journalist then asked him if this was the case, 'Why on earth is the AEC going to declare the Senate result in WA this afternoon?'

'I have no choice,' Mr Killesteyn replied. 'I am obligated to declare the result. Legally I have no other choice.' 

'So you need to do this so that it can be referred to the courts?'  the journalist asked.

'That's correct. The 40 day petition period to the courts is only enlivened once the last of all the writs has been returned. '

The Commissioner then summarised to the Australian public, via the journalist, everything that he had done to find the missing votes. 

The AEC had already begun an inquiry into the missing votes and was reviewing its procedures.

Mr Killesteyn understands that he is a servant of the Law, which says that he must declare the election. Despite some withering criticism, he recognises that he must make this decision to allow the consequences to begin flowing from it, whatever they may be.

He steps back from his own doubt and uncertainty and does his job. He produces his Widget so that others may produce theirs.

Like most good leaders, Mr Killesteyn is not in the heroic model. He is a career public servant who appears to have discharged his duties without fanfare or fuss.

In a 2009 speech he listed the four principles under which the AEC operated in order to build public confidence in its impartiality, one of which was 'decision-making in accordance with objective application of the law'.

He quoted from a speech given by the Indian Chief Election Commissioner, who said that the Indian organisation was able to retain the confidence of the electors because it was 'a listening Commission'.

Listening.

The Indian Commissioner concluded by saying: 

'Being human, we can be wrong sometimes, but our intention should never be impure.'

Mr Killesteyn's words and tone of speech showed that he understood and accepted that his organisation had failed in fulfilling its public duty to deliver on nothing short of the democratic process of a Federal Election.

Yet his voice during the interview was calm, measured, steady and without the edge that one expects from someone under so much criticism. Possibly because he was liberated by the knowledge that while he had failed in his Widget, his decision making was flawless.

His response today was even more remarkable given that it was he who decided to overrule the WA Electoral Commissioner's original decision and to allow the re-count that has ultimately revealed his organisation's errors and undermined public confidence in it, and in him. 

Leaders are Brave. 

Breathing.

Step 1 of the Good Decision Making process is to Step Back. 

Don't mistake decisiveness for good decision making. 

Don't mistake power for Leadership. 

Don't mistake reaction for action. 

Step Back. 

Keep Breathing. 

Listen.

Listen. 

Keep listening. 

Listen until your ears bleed. 

Listen until the other person falls silent. 

Then keep listening.

But they're not speaking.?

Doesn't matter. Keep listening.

They're talking again.

Listen. 

They've stop talking. 

Keep listening?  

Yes. 

They're still not talking. 

Keep listening. 

Neither of us is talking now. 

It's been quiet for a while. 

Okay it's feeling a bit awkward. 

Listen until your ears bleed. 

Sure - but there hasn't been anything to listen to for at least half a minute now. 

Is it feeling awkward? 

Yes. 

Keep listening.

Okay this extended silence is starting to feel a little creepy. 

You can talk now.