Working with the elegant and gifted team coach & facilitator, Dr. Chris Sansone (http://gostrategy.net/about-chris.html) this week, I saw something powerful. Team members that can surface undiscussables quickly and fluidly without retribution will create long term sustainability. Leaders who habitually silence differing opinions and avoid conflict are doomed for failure, or worse, mediocrity.
Leaders don’t realize that by giving voice to other points of view (usually the unpopular ones), is really about their inability to hold tension when someone sees a position differently. They personalize it.
Feedback loops are critical to teams. As we know being able to ask, give and receive feedback is the number one factor for high performance on teams. As my colleague Dr. Manoj Pawar (http://www.banyantreeleadership.com/About/Manoj%20Pawar/ManojPawar.html) says, teams are no different than the human body. If we don’t build and listen to the feedback loops inherent in our body, disease is born.
Same things on teams. Remember NASA and the Challenger accident? NASA said it had a safety culture however what they did was different. They allowed political pressure to NOT delay the launch even though the engineers were raising questions about the safety of the O – rings.
How well can I name the elephants in the room as the leader and hold the tension for disagreement?
