Transcripts

Judith E. Glaser:
We studied the whole bully boss syndrome to figure out what's going on, what is this boss thing? The boss thing is bossing people around and the X and Y generation does not tolerate bossiness anymore, and they don't want people to boss them around, they're smart.

Judith Glaser, author of the book, The DNA of Leadership says successful leaders today don't pretend to know everything.

And in the world, the 21st century that we're stepping into this new wave of we centric leadership is really all about being honest and open and candid and vulnerable-letting people know we don't have the answers and inviting people in to help us work them out together.

But inviting people in doesn't just mean trying to convince them you're right. That kind of consensus building causes lots of problems says Judith.

We've come to see in many companies that consensus building is actually symptomatic when it's done this way, which is to quell voices and not have to listen to the out liars. It's done to actually suppress great thinking and 80% of the people are saying let's do something. It's usually more mediocre than what the 20% are thinking who are pushing back against the direction.

When leaders bring other people in on decisions they need to be candid and honest about the decision making process.

And so well, it might be scary to some leaders to think that you're hearing all the voices. It's not scary when you say up front, "Hey you know how we're going to run this, I'm ultimately going to be the decision maker, but I want to hear from everybody, I want to hear your thoughts and ideas, I'll definitely consider them and I will be influenced by them."

At somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.