An Important Trait Of Great Leaders

I see many Leaders who say they want to attain huge Goals.

It's an awesome thing to see, but I find there is something that stands in the way of most Leaders.

Do you know what it is?

The ability to Believe that they may be Wrong.

Or, at the very least, Understand that it is valuable to Understand they may be wrong frequently.

Why is this so Important?

Well, simply put, it's the Truth.

I don't mean this to be mean or anything, it is just a part of being Human.

I am no different - I frequently find myself wrong in Life.

You need to Approach situations with the Belief that you may be Wrong from the start.

I see Leaders go into situations where they 100% Believe they know EXACTLY what is happening.

But do you know what I see 95% of the time when I'm in the same room as these Leaders?

Missed Opportunities.

Left and right.

I see other people in the room who hold their tongues, give looks toward each other, and pretend not to have Ideas of what went wrong or why certain events happened.

All of these problems and more.

All because the Leader already assumed they knew everything.

Often in these Organizations, I see those same Leaders who "knew everything" unable to Figure out how things could be going so terribly wrong.

In almost every bad Organization I see, I also find Leaders who are seeking to be Understood instead of looking to Understand.

What do I mean?

The role of a Leader should be to guide an Organization into the Future.

To accomplish this, they need to have their hands "off" of other processes so that they can put their Focus on that.

However, this process when done incorrectly also makes the Leader completely Blind to the Realities of their Organizations.

Essentially, these Leaders begin to look at their Organization in terms of numbers instead of anything else.

In effect, they dehumanize their entire workforce.

Data is needed yes, but not at the expense of the Humans that produce those Results.

When these Leaders look at the Data, they Believe they know exactly what the Problems are and act on them.

But the Problems are usually far more nuanced, and where the Data "shows" an Issue is rarely what is "causing" the issue.

This also becomes a double-edged sword against the Leader.

Since the Leader is already convinced that they "know" the Solutions, they become blind and deaf to what truly causes the problem.

With this, they also become completely susceptible to the snakes in the room.

These snakes know that the Leader has already come to a conclusion, and are happy to tell the Leader that they are right.

Often, it is those snakes who are causing the Problems, and passing the blame off on others so they stay "safe", knowing the Leader will fall for it.

Frequently, I see Leaders getting false information that bolsters their Egos while blinding them even further from Reality.

All because they Believe they know everything from the Start.

However, this can easily be avoided by simply assuming you don't Know, and assuming that you may be Wrong.

It is okay to "think" you have an Idea, of course, but the Problems arise when you think you Know everything.

When you assume you may be Wrong, you begin to really Listen to what others are saying and "how" they are saying it.

You begin to hear things that you may not have realized.

You also start to take in more Perspectives, purposefully, which allows you to design a better Future for the Organization.

As you take in these different Perspectives, you start to also unlock more Innovative and Creative Ideas with others.

When you think you could be wrong, you find that, indeed, there are people who have significantly better Ideas or can make good Ideas into Brilliant ones.

Perhaps the best part of it is that you can find out who is truly Valuable on your Teams and who wants you to "think" they are Valuable.

The key to it all is that you have to Believe you may be Wrong, and that is okay because you're also Human, and it's normal to be Wrong.

It is through Understanding those around you first that you can gain the best Understanding of how to move your Organization into a better Future.