Listening.
Everyone pays lip-service that this is a vital part of being a great leader.
Hard to disagree with that, right?
In fact, one of the wisest men, ever, put it this way:
- “To answer before listening— that is folly and shame.”
Why, then, is it so hard for people to put good listening skills into practice?
Listening includes finding out what the other person is really saying (both verbal and written content) and not just jumping to conclusions based on a single post. If you have not read my books, blogs, been through the Flow Leadership Framework and Mindset training, etc., then you may want to find out what we are all about first.
Here’s a high-level view of Flow:
To “answer” before reading about and/or understanding Flow, that just makes one look ignorant. Unfortunately, I have had several people do just that during the past few months (is it just me or are people on LinkedIn getting more impolite, ill-mannered, condescending, and combative?).
Flow is simple:
Flow can also help you navigate and mitigate even the most complex (even chaotic) of environments:
My observation is that many people have a cult mentality (and loyalty) to their favorite methodology / association. Maybe Flow is hitting a raw nerve and exposing the shortcomings (and under-performance) in all of those? And rather than seeking to understand, they attack instead. This violates the very first statement in the Agile Manifesto:
- “We are uncovering better ways of developing…”
Really?
By attacking first?
Yes, that seems to be in alignment with Agile values, right?
Wrong! Attacking someone else will definitely prevent anyone from uncovering a “better way.” And, if you do that, you’ve become the very thing you claim that you are not – the walking definition of intolerance.
As I mused about why people are so quick and eager to attack, I realized that it’s all about stopping someone else’s forward momentum. And it doesn’t appear to difficult, all you need is a really good grip (as demonstrated in last night’s European Football championship game between England and Italy):
And this image reminded me of how many people behave on LinkedIn. The Italian player got a yellow card for this. Many of the English fans felt that it should have been a red card. Either way, the result was the same: Italy won in the shootout after the overtime was over.
By the way, this was one of the oldest players on the field vs. the youngest. Seems to be an apt metaphor of the struggle between traditional and agile mindsets. And, it’s a pretty good picture of what politics looks like when it manifests (and politics is a blood sport).
If you have something positive to add to the Flow Leadership Framework and Mindset, then I am all ears.
Want to learn more about Flow? Then let’s chat!
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For those that are not familiar with the Flow Leadership Framework & Mindset, it is what’s next for businesses and organizations that are ready to succeed regardless of the methods, frameworks or management tools that they use throughout their enterprise. Flow is methodology agnostic.
Are you ‘in the zone’ of optimal performance right now as a person, team or enterprise? Did you get there by accident or by focused intentional acts?
“Flow” gives you the way of working and mindset needed to create and maintain an optimal state of high performance as an individual, team or organization.
The Flow Leadership Framework turbocharges everything you do, including “business agile” leadership and Scaled Agile.
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PS Here are the associated links to this blog post for:
#culture #scrum #agile #pmi #pmp #kanban #lean #flow #scaledagile #transformation #change #transform