Risk & Business Magazine General Insurance Services - Fall 2020 | Page 9

LEADER'S JOURNEY
5 TIPS FOR ACCELERATING A LEADER’S JOURNEY
FROM KNOWER
TO LEARNER
1. USE THE POWER OF THE
PAUSE IN THOUGHT AND IN
CONVERSATION. As discussed in
Out of the Question, How Curious
Leaders Win, using the Power of
the Pause– be it for a minute or 24 hours –
provides time for deeper reflection on the
issue allowing you to listen to your intuition
and then respond with better and broader
impact. Necessary for anyone in today’s fastpaced
world, a pause in one’s day, or even
just in (especially in) important conversation
provides the needed breathing room for
reflection and intentional action.
2. REFLECT, INSPECT AND EXPECT.
Consider this framework: reflecting is
focused on the past; inspecting is focused
on the current situation; and expecting is
thinking on the outcomes we are going to
achieve together. By preparing to engage on
a topic using this framework, we find the
likelihood of exploring novel solutions is
expanded. Together, in a creative and open
minded way, you built your understanding
of the history and key assumptions and ask
all the questions you can about the current
situation, which is how you arrive at a new
place together.
3. DURING THE PAUSE, CAREFULLY
EVALUATE: How urgent is this? Are we sure
we understand the entire situation? Think
through goals before speaking or acting, and
determine your desired outcome before
telling people how to get things done. Think
about the kind of questions you could ask
your team to make them owners of the
solutions. Look at the team/people working,
and make sure you have the right people in
place. Have you brought in the full set of
people whose feelings and impressions need
to be considered?
4. START SMALL, AND PRACTICE. One
action to become a Learner Leader that
we learned from the book Outliers by Liz
Wiseman is the following simple trick: start
the day with five pennies in your left pants
pocket. Whenever you give a directive, as
opposed to asking an open question based
on genuine curiosity, or whenever you start
telling people what to do, move one penny
to your right pocket. See how far into the
day you can get before you have an empty
left pocket! The goal here is to be aware of
our “command and control” behaviors and
shift towards the Learner Leader mindset.
5. TRY ASKING A FEW QUESTIONS WITH
NO KNOWN OR ASSUMED ANSWER: As
leaders, asking questions without any
concept of a solution or answer is an
intimidating hurdle. We often fall back to
the safety net of asking questions where
we feel we can provide guidance or have
a preconceived notion of what we are
expecting to happen. Asking a question
like “why do you think our customers
delay in making their purchase?" or “how
could we change the way our customers
view our product" – without a desired
outcome, but a genuine interest and value
in the answers your team comes up with
is a powerful exercise. Take the brave step
of preparing in advance a careful question
that has no answer, and see how the team
responds. +
Guy C. Parsons is the founder of Value Stream Solutions (VSS). VSS provides Lean
Business System consulting. Guy leads Value Stream MappingSM workshops and
delivers educational presentations on Lean Principles. VSS is currently focused on
delivering value to the owners of business at all sizes, from a $20MM privately held
aircraft manufacturer to public corporations such as Starbucks and Johnson & Johnson.
Guy received a BA in Economics and Computer Science from Connecticut College.
He received an MBA from Harvard University, with a focus on manufacturing
strategy and technology implementation. Guy has been a guest lecturer at MIT
and Harvard Business School.
GrowthInstitute.com
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