The
Strongest Leaders Use This Simple, Powerful Phrase
Leadership
doesn't always mean action. Emotional intelligence expert Brene Brown talks
about 3 words the wisest people use.
All entrepreneurs have a mythology, from Steve Jobs to Jack Dorsey. It plugs into our need to tell stories, whether we are
the heroes in our own personal lives or the saviors for our deserving
customers. More than almost anything else in the animal kingdom, storytelling
is in our DNA.
In
fact, we can be so eager to create a narrative, we often begin telling
ourselves a story before we even have all the important details. In Rising
Strong, Brene Brown talks about how
storytelling could also be our downfall:
"We're
wired for story and in the absence of data we will rely on confabulations and
conspiracies.... More information means less fear-based story-making."
It
comes down to three words: "I don't know." The problem is that, as
leaders, we feel that we should know -- otherwise, why are we leaders?
As fallen Silicon
Valley founder Maren Kate Donovan put it,
"Faking it doesn't change the reality of any [bad] situations; it only
leaves you and others feeling even more alone."
Leadership
isn't about knowing everything when you need it, but knowing when you don't
have enough information to go forward. You lead because of your vision, your
insight, and your bravery, not because of your ESP.
There
are some excellent ways to say "I don't know" to people who trust
you:
·
Let's
reassess things when we have more information.
·
It's
best to make a list of what we do know and the assumptions we are making right
now.
·
Can we
get more intel to make an informed choice?
Note
that these are still all about taking action -- just a different action than
running blindly into an unclear situation. It's worth admitting that your
business needs more information rather than putting your comfort (and assumptions)
first.
BY DAMON
BROWN
http://www.inc.com/damon-brown/the-strongest-leaders-use-this-simple-powerful-phrase-.html
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