Jun
30
2010
Leading at Light Speed is an excellent leadership book by Eric Douglas showing you step-by-step how to implement 10 Quantum Leaps that build trust, spark innovation, and create a high-performing organization.
Quantum Leap #3 is all in regards to how to Lead Through Others.
Imagine you’re flying on an airline with an open seating plan like Southwest. You’ve found yourself an aisle seat. The window and middle seats next to you are open. What do you do when people pour down the aisle searching for a spot to sit down?
If your orientation is toward other people, you make eye contact, inviting them to take the seat next to you. But if you’re not oriented toward other people, you avoid eye contact, keeping your face buried in a newspaper. Perhaps you place a section of the newspaper on the chair beside you. When someone takes a seat next to you, you take a glance at them, recoil, and let them fend for themselves.
This “Southwest Test” might not look like much. But it says a great deal about who you are and your capability to direct others. A lot of information can be conveyed in thos few moments–am I a person who can be relied on to watch out for others? Or am I a primarily looking out for myself? It is obvious which type of person is more capable to foster trust–and who sparks peoples intuition.
In some organizations, especially those driven by “Type A” managers, a relentless pressure to perform can drain people’s energies. Successful leaders alleviate the pressure in ways that aid people to find out how to trust one another. Psychologists call this ability to regulate pressure “systemic stress management.” It’s why sailors get shore leave, why people get holidays, why organizations create social occasions.
At Lehman Brothers, where hundreds of highly paid broker-dealers manage the daily ebbs and flows of the stock market, their Friday afternoon get-togethers are a chance to let off steam. One executive once said, “If you don’t bring food to the office, people will always go hungry.”Lehman give people yet another reason to appreciate the company’s level of attention and care.
People relax by playing volleyball during their lunch hour at the Intel campus in Roseville, California. Two sand courts are filled with players each day. A soccer game pick up on a field close by.
“To maintain a high level of focus is fatiguing,” says Gregory Kolt, a professor of psychology at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. The trick, he says, is to find enough idle distractions so that you can elevate your focus at the right time.
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Tags: leadership, management, team buliding, workplace communication
