You don’t want to be the last person to know what is going on in your organisation. Photo: File.
While it worked for Admiral Nelson, Michelle Gibbings says turning a blind eye to what may become problems at work rarely leads to good outcomes.
Admiral Horatio Nelson is considered one of Britain’s best naval commanders, with a long and distinguished career culminating in the country’s decisive victory over the French at the Battle of Trafalgar.
At an earlier engagement, off Copenhagen, Nelson’s superior, Sir Hyde Parker, worrying that Nelson was suffering huge losses, hoisted the signal for him to disengage.
Nelson ignored this signal, claiming he didn’t see it because he was blind in one eye. An hour later, victory was Nelson’s.
This is where the saying ”turning a blind eye” comes from.
Nelson got a good outcome, but that’s often not the case when you turn a blind eye. Instead, the issue – deliberately or unknowingly unseen – remains, only to arise later.
It can be easy to ignore what’s around you, or build systems, processes and a culture that shields you from what’s happening.
As a leader, however, you don’t want to be the last person to know what is really going on in your team or organisation.
So how do you ensure that you are seeing and hearing all you need to see and hear?
There are some elements to consider.
Welcome all news: Welcome all types of information – even news that is difficult to hear.
Not only is your reaction a test of your character, but it also sets the standard for future events.
If you shoot the messenger, the next time an issue arises you’re less likely to find people willing to alert you.
Talk to people at all levels of the organisation: Hierarchy can interfere with the information you receive as details can be filtered and sanitised.
The people around you may not want to look bad, so may strive to paint the most optimistic picture of what is happening.
Talking with people across and up and down the organisation ensures you have a better handle on what is happening.
Beware of gatekeepers: I remember early in my career when I had to ring a senior executive in the London office.
I assumed their executive assistant would answer the phone and was surprised when the executive answered.
When I expressed my surprise, he said: “I don’t want a gatekeeper filtering what I hear or who I talk with.”
While your support staff will often act with good intent, if access to you is so heavily managed that people find it difficult to see you, it will be harder for you to gain a realistic assessment of progress and issues.
Walk the floor: Walking around the office and having random conversations is often an invaluable way of discovering what is happening.
It’s also a way to build rapport and relationships with people.
While many of us are now in hybrid working relationships, this advice still holds. You can still walk the floor, and you can also do virtual skip-level meetings and find informal ways to catch up with people across your team.
Constantly be alert to the weak signals: Weak signals are all around us; to notice them, you must keep your eyes open to what is happening and be naturally curious and questioning.
If something doesn’t feel right, it usually isn’t. Trust your gut instinct and keep asking questions until you get to the heart of the matter.
Invite differences of opinion: When making decisions, involve people with different perspectives and from diverse backgrounds.
This will help ensure you engage in broad analysis and debate before deciding. Out-of-the-box thinking often comes from unexpected quarters.
Don’t silence the dissenters: Often, the person with the dissenting opinion or the person asking the probing questions will help you see the issue from a different perspective.
While this can be frustrating, it is helpful in the long run. You can also take comfort from the fact you have examined the issue from multiple perspectives.
Embrace the learning: Although news that something has gone wrong on a project or initiative won’t make you happy, be open to the learning it offers.
Once a problem has been identified, you can do something about it. However, if it is unknown, it will likely cause more significant damage the longer it goes undetected.
Be grateful that the issue has been found because you now have the opportunity to address it.
It is better to fail fast than to fail slow. Acknowledge the mistake, understand what caused it, and act swiftly to address it.
The upside is the more you adopt these actions, the more engaged your team members will be. They’ll know that you have their backs. They’ll recognise you support their efforts to try new things and to make progress.
They’ll also understand you welcome the chance to move forward with change and you want to know what is happening rather than be shielded from bad news.
*Michelle Gibbings is a Melbourne-based change leadership and career expert and founder of Change Meridian. She works with global leaders and teams to help them get fit for the future of work. She can be contacted at [email protected].
This article first appeared at https://www.changemeridian.com.au/latest-news/.
