Category Archives: communication

Fish can’t climb trees!

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So if you’re like me, half your friends on Facebook post uplifting pics, sarcastic pics, stupid pics, people I would like to punch in the throat pics (okay I do like that one).  Most of the time I either ignore, chuckle, or shake my head as appropriate and move on to bigger and better things.  This one however resonated with me.

“Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”  This made me wonder to myself, how many tree climbing fish do I know?  Or more importantly, how many fish am I trying to get to climb a tree?

How much energy might we be wasting trying to get conformity, or trying to get people to do something they are not wired to do?  The answer to that question might be scary.  Are the right people not on the bus, or are we putting them in the wrong seats?  As leaders we need to leverage our resources to maximize our output.  That is not going to be achieved with an extensive tree climbing training program for our fish, and I certainly don’t want to be judged by my ability to teach fish to climb.

Now if there isn’t a roll for fish in our organization, that is a different problem.  But we need to let the monkeys climb and let the fish swim. In other words, let people do what they do best. Leverage their skill sets to your mutual advantage. I regularly see marketing people struggle to produce a spreadsheet, and it falls short of the mark anyway.  If they had asked anyone in the finance department it would have been done in minutes, and done better.  Conversely, I can try and make an accountant artistic, or maybe I could let them do accounting.   Different skill sets, different roles perhaps?

Justin Verlander isn’t judged by his ability to play shortstop or hit a ball.  Barry Sanders wasn’t kept out of the hall of fame because he never kicked a field goal.  Are we judging our fish on their tree climbing?  I think that Big Al might be on to something.

 

Communication Breakdown

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I was reading a great post about communication the other day that really resonated with me.  The focus of it centered around the importance of intimacy. No, not that intimacy, that’s a different blog.  It was on the importance of intimacy as it relates to communication.  In short, the greater the distance between leaders and workers, the less likely you are to be aware of new ideas or problems on the front line.  It’s too easy to pull together a big group and declare victory as it relates to your internal communications.  If you are viewed as the person in the ivory tower,with the possible exception of your inner circle,  you can’t expect anyone to give it to you straight.  To be effective, communications need to be more personal and sincere.

They describe four techniques to help have more meaningful conversations:

1. To learn more, listen better.

2. To have a big impact, meet in a small group.

3. To build trust, show trust.

4. To be a better communicator, be who you are.

These are simple but effective ideas to help any leader get closer to their employee group, and improve the intimacy of their communication.   Check out the full Blog post for more information.

Power and Creativity: Can they play together?

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Do you remember the childrens story about the emperor with no clothes?  Because of the atmosphere he had created, no one felt that they could be honest and tell him that he was sans pants.  His lack of humility was his ultimate undoing.  Have you ever paused to ask yourself if you have created such an environment, and considered the impact that has on innovation?

Research conducted by USC Marshall professor Nathanael Fast the Marshall School of Business suggests that power can have a negative impact on innovation if the environment doesn’t allow for an honest critique of the boss.  “The overall sense of control that comes with power tends to make people feel overconfident in their ability to make good decisions,” Fast said.  In other words, you start to believe your own hype.

As leaders in an organization I believe the goal is to strike an appropriate balance of confidence and humility.  Ego can be a good thing in that it helps give you the confidence to make decisions and move forward.  Too much can be your downfall as you cut off the creative process and limit thinking.  Don’t surround yourself with people that feed your ego, surround yourself with people that will push you and the process with honest feedback.

Now please, go put on some pants!