In a meeting, if a leader expresses their opinion first, what they’re doing is anchoring the discussion to their own perspective. Instead, leaders speak last. They share their opinions once they’ve heard from other people to hear more diverse perspectives. I’m in Alloa in Scotland, where this anchor is a reminder of the history of...
You can’t fix people. They don’t need fixing. What you can do is create the environment where it makes it easy for people to do the behavior that you’re looking for. Hey, David Marquet here. I want to talk about Principle 5 of Intent-Based Leadership, which is Leaders Fix the Environment, Not People. Now, here’s how this...
Leadership Nudge® 335 – The Ladder of Leadership: Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward
December 16, 2020by Sandy Wilmer
An easy way to think about how to use the Ladder of Leadership is to imagine the steps as a way to Pause, Rewind and Fast Forward. Watch David explain in this week’s Nudge. The Ladder of Leadership with the seven steps is sometimes complicated and hard to remember. “Oh, is this step three or...
Studies show that when we try to control things that we really cannot control, our blood pressure increases and our bodies release of the stress hormone cortisol. For more happiness and less stress make a conscious choice to give up control. A key part of Intent-Based Leadership is about giving up control. We understand the...
When giving up control, aim for level 5 on the Ladder of Leadership. This allows for robust discussions and maintains a safe environment for decisions. We’re careful to represent level five as the sweet spot on the Ladder of Leadership. But there’s this notion that well, six is greater than five. So six must be...
Leadership Nudge® 329 – Words for Level 6
October 28, 2020by Sandy Wilmer
At Level 6 on the Ladder of Leadership decisions are made by the people doing the work without your involvement. Leaders put into place the structure that pushes authority for decisions to those with the information. Let the people doing the work make the decisions about the work. Learn more by reading this blog post: Use...
Use the Ladder of Leadership to become a “Know, Don’t Tell” leader. watch this Nudge for more information Leadership Nudge® 327 – Be a “Know, Don’t Tell” Leader One of our frameworks is focused on this idea of knowing and telling. And the idea is, you want as much as possible to be a “Don’t Tell”...
Create a strong team and an environment that develops leaders by resisting the urge to tell your team what to do. Instead, be a “Know, Don’t Tell” leader whenever possible. One way to think about your behaviors as a leader is to think about this two dimensional axis, which I call the Know/Tell axis. So...
Leaders use intent to get the team to have a sense of ownership and feel responsible for the outcomes of the job and, at the same time, have alignment and unity of effort. One of the great conundrums of leadership is “how do I get the team to have a sense of ownership and feel...
Traditionally, we send “decision-making” up the chain of command and “taking action” down the chain. Now we want to activate everyone’s thinking. Create a Decide List for your team and invite them into the decision making. This will move your boss into a support role of bringing you resources and performing actions that help advance...