The value of contrarian thinking
Why leaders need someone in every room to challenge their perspectives
Staying grounded as a leader is important.
It’s easy to get to a point where the people around you only tell you what they think you want to hear instead of what you need to hear.
We’ve probably all had an experience like this.
A leader who says they want diversity of thought and perspective, but when those diverse thoughts and perspectives emerge, the leader attacks them and shows that in reality, he doesn't want them.
I’ve experienced this a number of times throughout my career. It’s never pleasant.
In fact, it’s one of the most defeating experiences an employee can have.
And it creates tons of risk for the leader in their decision-making.
If everyone around a leader is telling him he’s amazing, that all of his decisions are fantastic, and that he can do no wrong, it creates an “Emperor Has No Clothes” situation.
And that can destroy an organization quickly.
If you want radical candor, you have to foster healthy disagreement and encourage dissenting viewpoints.
Otherwise it becomes very easy to get sucked into a false sense of reality where people only report good news because they think it’s all you want to hear.
But only seeing and hearing the positive aspects of your business or organization sets you up to fail because you aren’t addressing key risks and challenges.
This is why I specifically hire and empower people who can and will push back on me as a leader.
In fact, in one recent company I ran, I hired a Chief of Staff and gave her a seat on our executive team specifically so that I had at least one person who was guaranteed to always speak truth to power.
And throughout my teams, I actively invite and encourage others to speak up and push back.
When they do, I make a point to celebrate that publicly, share the situation with the entire team, and remind them that challenging one another’s ideas and view points is what helps us sharpen our thinking and improve our performance for our clients and those they serve.
As a leader you can’t just say you want this kind of engagement from your people.
You actually have to reinforce it. Celebrate it. Encourage it.
Trust me, as your organization begins to grow and thrive because of this, you’ll be glad you empowered your team to do this.