Leadership and the limits of understanding | Stream of Consciousness #9
After experiencing different styles leadership, I always wondered, how do people manage to be achieve these positions even though they clearly lack the backbone for it? I do not want sound all knowing, at all, it is not my point. It is a genuine question.
Although leadership has many definitions: a leader is someone who is able to give the necessary means for everyone in a team to be their best. Someone who leads by example. Someone who is able to trust others. These require a non-negligible amount of emotional intelligence.
Aside from these a leader must also know their weaknesses and acknowledging when they lack knowledge in something.
Let us see an example:
What would you do when you (leader) do not understand or are not sure of someone else’s idea?
Would you ask them to explain it to you?
Or maybe, you try explain them what you understood potentially admitting that you did not understand their explanation or the context?
Or would you ask surrounding question based on your understanding (or lack thereof) and potentially misinterpreting?
It is tricky, because the first two options are a clear sign of humility, we are human beings after all, we cannot understand everything everyone has in mind. However, by having this positions of leadership, people tend to think they have to be all-knowing and, acknowledging that they did not understand where others ideas are coming from is some sort of faux-pas, which is absurd. It only reinforces that leading is also admitting that we do not have all the answers and others in the team might be better equipped that us to actually answer and that we trust them.
The third options is patronizing in a way, not that you cannot ask questions, it is just if you do not start by clearly stating, as a leader, what you understood from the other’s idea, you will appear that you are not trusting the other’s judgement and that since you are the leader you have the say if it is a good idea or not which technically you have, but if you did not understand the idea in the first place your say will be invalid because you did not bother to fully comprehend the other which in turn creates frustration.
My main point here is: don’t be afraid of not understanding, don’t be afraid to explain fully your understanding so you are not misinterpreted. And above all be respectful, it is not because you have a different status that you should treat people differently that you would like to be treated.
Here is another stream of consciousness, please let me know what you think and tell me what is also going on in your life, so it might also help you process. 🙏🏼
