Is Your Brilliance Hiding in Plain Sight?
Personal Development
February 7, 2014
Mary C. Schaefer
Topics
Courage, Growth, Management, people management, Purpose, Self Development, Values, VisionYou have your own way of getting work done through others. As a manager, your own inherent values and ideas of how the world works (and should work) drive how you handle issues with the human beings in your charge.
Something I notice with my clients and myself is that we often suppress our initial reaction to an issue because we don’t think it’s reasonable or actionable. Over time I’ve come to realize that our initial reactions — things we just toss off — often reveal something powerful about our leadership approach and philosophy.
Learn from experience.
Early in my career as a corporate employee I found myself challenging my supervisor. I didn’t like how he was keeping certain employees out of the loop around how their work was changing. One day in a staff meeting I put him on the spot about it. Afterward he came to my office, shut the door and proceeded to tell me (in a VERY loud voice) that I would never be management material, and by the way, "whose side are you on?"
Granted, the way I handled myself in the staff meeting was not my finest moment. I distinctly remember thinking thought, “If this is what it takes to be a manager, I’m going to keep on treating people like human beings and take my chances.” I suspect my former supervisor would say I needed an attitude adjustment. In retrospect I realize that, despite my rough start, there was a nugget of something dynamic in my initial reaction. I was committed to treating people at work like human beings. This is the natural, typical place I start when faced with an issue.
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
When looking at decisions or actions, it’s always important to consider all relevant stakeholders, like employees, the organization, customers and even yourself. And yet, don’t diminish the importance of your unique perspective, and bring it to the table when others may be missing it.
What have you learned about your own brilliance hiding in plain sight?
Image: BigStockphoto contributor Otna Ydur
This is good. For me, production of the whole operation was placed on the shoulders of one team. Yes they were a key piece, but as it turned out, once they improved (mainly through overcoming negativity) – there was no big hurrah. Why is that? Blame shifting, the others needed an excuse. I don’t recall reading any book or even calculating what to do. I simply started working with them, and did what seemed the obvious fixes. They literally believed what was being fed to them, the negative info. No one can be effective that way. It was a relatively short turn around time for them, so I didn’t even think much about it, didn’t feel I did much. Much later I realized, what that did for the individuals and how it turned the heat elsewhere, why there was no hurrah, to fix bigger problems. Sometimes all that’s required is for you to show up and do what seems obvious, it still counts.