Distribute, not Direct.
The boss is a distributor.
The government uses its authority to collect tax. Then uses its overwatch position to distribute funding to points of local execution in the community.
The boss’s currency is information and responsibility.
The boss’s main job is not directing, but distributing.
Then to get out of the way.
And watch what happens.
360 Degree Leadership.
A driver stops to allow another car in from a side street.
Another brakes and waves a mother and child across a busy street.
A car pauses on the road while a driver reverses out of a car bay.
The courteous driver feels virtuous and the recipients of their consideration feel grateful. Waves and nods of appreciation and acknowledgment are exchanged. Two parties benefit and feel that life is fair and kind.
Meanwhile.
Cars bank up behind.
The consequences of two people’s decisions cascade beyond them to a handful, a dozen, or more.
Expectations and understanding of road rules and conventions and etiquette are confounded.
New, risky expectations are created in a child and other observers who may act on them in the future.
One driver makes a decision on behalf of others to inconvenience them without consultation or benefit.
One of the jobs of a boss is to have situational awareness. To have a 360 degree view and understanding of the consequences of their actions. To weigh up a decision in favour of one with the adverse consequences for many. To sacrifice the immediate feel-good of the grateful nod or wave, for the greater good that may never be recognised let alone acknowledged and thanked.
To drive on and leave the car in the side street to wait longer for a natural break in traffic. To compel the mother and child to walk further and cross at the lights or crosswalk. To prioritise the traffic flow over the reversing driver.
To serve the common good.
So much of leadership training focusses on serving the person in front because there’s an immediate payoff.
A good leader - like a good person - is also aware of the consequences of their actions for everyone. Front, side, rear. Fifty metres back down the road and fifty years into the future. In both space and time. And is willing to accept that their awareness and consideration will most likely force them to sacrifice the feel-good praise and gratitude today, for the greater good.
Good leaders - like good drivers - are rare.
It’s All Step Back.
Step 1 of the Five Steps to a Good Decision is Step Back.
So are Steps 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Consciously and intentionally attending to a process forces our onward rush towards an instinctive and thoughtless decision to slow down - to a leisurely stroll.
A Sixth Sense.
SEAWARD J: And you say they were more concerned about it from - are you saying [their decision was biased] from what they said in the hearing to you or are you saying that based on what they wrote in their decision?
GODDARD, MR: It was - it was a sixth sense, so to speak, in the hearing, plus what they wrote.
We should pay attention to our instincts. Our sixth sense.
Then apply the five senses of a good decision making process and test if it survives.
If it does - we have a language in which to communicate our concerns.
Stop Blaming the They.
If you’re unhappy at work.
And you find yourself blaming ‘Them’.
That’s your cue to quit.
Because if you are in a job that does not give you the agency to change enough about what you do to make you at least content - it means you’re not in a job that is making a difference. If you’re a subject of your workplace and not at least a co-author or editor, then you may as well not be there.
Or else stop blaming the They.
Drink Stations.
Good bosses, like good people, are like drink stations spaced along the route of an ultra-marathon.
Still an Ass.
Experience is making the same mistake over and over again, only with greater confidence.’ - Anon
This phenomenon is common in bad bosses.
Bad bosses rely almost exclusively on positional power to operate. If they did something once and did not personally register any adverse consequences, then their experience becomes Truth.
They think ‘I became a boss because I did this thing.’
Add ‘x’ years to their ‘logic’, and it becomes:
‘I spent x years doing this thing and was rewarded by being made the boss’.
It’s also highly likely that the thing they did for x years was so menial or inconsequential that not only did their errors go unnoticed, the experience offered them little to no learning or growth to enhance their understanding of the workplace or world.
There’s a quote attributed to Napoleon when one of his officers demanded promotion because he’d faithfully served in his position for five years. Allegedly Napoleon pointed to a donkey and said:
‘See that ass? He’s been an ass for five years. He’s still an ass’.
What a Gift.
You want to be a boss - but not your-boss-kind-of-boss.
Be grateful for your not-you boss.
They’re taken a path in the maze that led to a dead end. They’ve shown you ‘Don’t follow me. Don’t take this route.’ They’ve saved you time and heartache.
What a gift.
Honour their sacrifice.
Boss differently.
Spot Them.
You can spot the narcissistic leader.
They organise a speaker for the mandatory presentation.
Then sit front row centre answering presenter questions to the audience.
Tonight’s Dinner.
Do not mistake outward action for inward thought.
Those eyes looking up at you at your meeting or presentation?
Most are checking off a shopping list, or peering inside their refrigerator or shopping cart for an ingredient for tonight’s dinner.
You are Not Alone.
Decision making is often portrayed as a lonely business.
It shouldn’t be.
Step 1: Step Back is the only period of isolation. The retreat. The forty seconds, minutes, hours, days in the desert. The selfishness that is the springboard for selflessness. Preparation for re-entry into the world of others.
Step 2: Define the Issue. Look up and out from your pinhole camera. Point your telescope to the stars. Feel your place in the cosmos of possible futures your decision may lead to.
Step 3: Assess the Information. You’re out there. Soliciting facts, opinions, stories, contributions. You’re gathering collaborators, companions, a community of joint ownership and shareholders in your decision. You’re the host of a seminar of contributors who - unknown to each other before now - share a common interest in your search for a better future. ‘Help me to understand,’ you ask with humility and dependence. And they respond generously.
Step 4: Check for Bias. Stand up and look back at yourself. See yourself as others see you. Are you outward looking or navel gazing? Are you genuinely open to the better argument? Are you detached enough from your self-interests to see the person seated either side of you and the humanity you share with them? Are you hearing all the voices?
Step 5: Give a Hearing. Is there anyone who may be adversely affected by your decision? Scan the people who you recruited to your decision journey in Step 3. They trusted you by coming forward. Honour their generosity by telling them what you’re thinking that may not be what they expected. Invite them to tell you why you’re wrong. Be strong and humble enough to hear it. Wise and confident enough to weigh it up. Turn around and look at the line of people who have followed you on your path to making your decision. Accompanied you. Held you. Challenged you. Made it difficult and easier. Told you their truths so you can find yours.
A good decision making process is a communal act.
Your Silence Speaks.
You Step 1 - Step Back in your Five Steps to Good Decision Making.
If you have an audience - ie anyone affected by your decision - they will wait for you.
As they do, they will fill the space you created with more words in their thinking than you ever could if you spoke instead of stepped back.
By you stepping back - you also gift them the time and permission to benefit from a reprieve from the reflexive response to the information you’re called upon to make a decision about.
Your silence speaks more eloquently and productively in the voice in the mind of the other.
Stepping back is the beginning of you accompanying them.
It’s the Gaps.
What you don’t know and why you don’t know it are information too. - Verlyn Klinkenborg
The good decision making process is a net made up of gaps that you cast out into the world.
It’s the gaps in between that haul in the catch.
Do Both.
'There's an Icelandic artist called Dieter Roth who said something to me once which I thought was very clever. He said 'Faced with a choice, do both'. So if possible I try to, at least in thought, go through both possibilities and say 'Okay, if we did this, what would happen?' Or 'Let's do this and see what happens'. And then 'Let's do this other one and see what happens'. And usually....it becomes obvious which is the better option.'
- Brian Eno
A good decision making process allows us to do both … and many.
The process allows us to war game multiple decisions and outcomes
But wait. There’s more
We can review the decision consequences, learn from them, identify the step or steps in the process that had most influence on the outcome, and apply those lessons to our understanding of the world.
Thus one decision informs many.
The problem with most decisions is our many biases skewing us towards a predetermined outcome that blinds us to objectively following the process with a mind open to the better argument.
Faced with a choice- take the time to follow a process.
It may reveal other hidden choices.
A Compass.
Teaching leadership theory is like teaching a lost man the history of the compass.
The Blue Shirts.
I’m wearing a blue shirt when I do something stupid.
I support the Falcons team and I do something remarkable.
I’m a man and I hold a minority opinion.
Someone who loves Vegemite on their pizza declares men who are blue shirted Falcon supporters to be dangerous radicals.
Mostly what causes people to do and say things is nothing more profound than it seemed to them to be a good idea at the time.
But that isn’t an interesting story.
So they or we attribute their behaviour to their blue shirt or their tribe or their gender or … anything that explains it and says ‘Those Blue Shirts are not me.’
Stop, Thief!
Gallup found that a staggering 70% of the variance in worker engagement is determined by the boss.
Bad boss = Bad employee engagement.
Worker disengagement costs the Australian economy $211 Billion each year. $380,000 a minute. Every minute
Bad bosses are thieves.
Price’s Law
Price's law says that 50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work.
Four workers in your team, board, division, staff room, or company - two are doing half the work.
A hundred - ten of you are doing half the lifting.
Explains a lot.
Get Out of the Way.
The law encourages and protects rescuers by removing liability for harm they suffer during their rescue.
The exception is the rescuer who represents they will go to the assistance of another, then fail to do so or abandons their attempt without good cause. The law says that by doing so, the person prevents others from going to the rescue, and may therefore be liable to the person in distress.
Bad bosses are like the bad rescuer.
They hold a position and perform their duties badly to the exclusion of another who may do it well. They expose their workers to stress, overwork, and risk to their health and wellbeing that could be prevented by a good boss. Customers, clients, and suppliers also suffer. Potential good bosses or good workers are deterred from joining the organisation due to the bad boss at the helm.
As the old saying goes: Lead, follow, or get out of the way.