"If you’re a leader, you can put yourself in a cocoon—a good-news cocoon. Everyone tells you, ‘It’s all right—there’s no problem. And the next day, everything’s wrong.”
- Nandan NilekaniIf we aren't careful our perception of our organization can be vastly different than reality. I ran across the following tweet and it caused me to think about how we define reality from our perception.
If you're in #SchoolPR this is just a part of our reality. #WSPRA #BrianWoodland #SpeakTheTruth pic.twitter.com/5ApT91jUgk— WSPRA (@wspraboard) April 26, 2018
According to Hougaard and Carter (2018), the power that comes with a leadership position creates a bubble around the leader. As leaders rise in the ranks and gain more power they tend to become more insulated. This is largely due to the increase in praise and support that goes along with a leadership role. The bubble can shield the leader from what's happening in their organization.
"When we're in the CEO bubble, we don't get the tough feedback we need to improve our thinking and behavior."
- Hougaard and CarterThis means that we have to actively seek the truth. If we aren't aware of the CEO bubble we become more narrow minded and we're left with a version of reality that's of our own making. We need to surround ourselves with people who won't inflate our bubble and speak the truth. We can either seek comforting lies or we can stretch ourselves by seeking out unpleasant truths.
Hougaard and Carter provide some examples to become a more selfless leader:
- Every time you use, or are about to use, a self-referential term, pause and consider whether using a more inclusive term would be beneficial
- Consider ways in which your ego gets in the way of your leadership, and think of one concrete step to overcome its limitation
- Consider what "humility" means for you; if it is a value, consider one thing you will do to cultivate greater humility in your leadership
How do you seek unpleasant truths?
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