Elicit More Ideas

March 17, 2024

If you are a leader, in many situations it is important to elicit several ideas. By holding back on your brilliant opinion of what to do, you can usually draw out more insightful ideas. Let’s examine some examples.

To make enlightened decisions, leaders need good information. Sometimes it is helpful for you to just listen to the ideas of others. Rather than blurting out your preconceived notion, consider asking more questions. You will elicit far more information from other people.

The way to execute this strategy is simple. Refrain from making absolute statements, and ask a lot of open-ended questions. This process draws out alternate points of view from individuals. It allows you to hear many nuances before tipping your hand.

Don’t display hubris and expound your perspective on every issue before others have a chance to voice their ideas. Being too smart is often a dumb strategy. Of course, no rule of thumb works in every situation. You need to know when the time is right to divulge your opinion. Keep in mind that your opinion may change after you hear the thoughts of others.

Making Decisions

The same logic holds when making decisions after gathering information. Ask, “What do you think we should do,” instead of saying, “Here is what we should do.” Doing this would draw out the best ideas available.

Understand the dynamic and catch yourself in the act. By being alert to the dangers of advocating too early, you can improve your batting average. Allow everyone to enter the conversation at an appropriate level. Make sure to consider using their ideas, not just default to your own opinions.

Sometimes You Need to Act Fast

In a crisis situation, you may need to be highly directive and quick on the draw. Usually, it is better for you to allow conversation around sensitive issues. Then work with people to find the best solution.

It is important to catch yourself interjecting too soon and begin to train yourself to have more patience. God gave you two ears and one mouth, because you should listen twice as much as you speak. Many leaders do not understand this simple logic, and it works to their detriment.

Bob Whipple is CEO of Leadergrow, Inc. an organization dedicated to growing leaders. He can be reached at bwhipple@leadergrow.com. Website http://www.leadergrow.com BLOG http://www.thetrustambassador.com He is author of the following books: The Trust Factor: Advanced Leadership for Professionals, Understanding E-Body Language: Building Trust Online, Leading with Trust is Like Sailing Downwind, and Trust in Transition: Navigating Organizational Change.



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Leadership Barometer 41 Mentor Power

March 9, 2020

If you do not have at least one active mentor, you are missing a lot. In my experience, having a strong mentor at work made a huge difference in my career.

Also, turn the logic around and you should be mentoring at least one other person, hopefully more than one.

Even in my ripening old age, I am still gaining benefits from the lessons and ideas planted in me by my mentor when I was younger.

There are obvious benefits of having a mentor in an organization. Here are a few of them:

1. A mentor helps you learn the ropes faster
2. A mentor coaches you on what to do and especially what to avoid doing.
3. A mentor is an advocate for you in different circles from yours.
4. A mentor cleans up after you have made a mistake and helps protect your reputation.
5. A mentor pushes you when you need pushing and praises you when you need it.
6. A mentor brings wisdom born of mistakes made in the past, so you can avoid them.
7. A mentor operates as a sounding board for ideas and methods.

Many organizations have some form of mentoring program. I support the idea of fostering mentors, but the typical application has a low hit rate in the long term. That is because the mentor programs in most organizations are procedural rather than organic.

A typical mentor program couples younger professionals with more experienced managers after some sort of computerized matching process. The relationship starts out being helpful for both people, but after a few months it has degraded into a burdensome commitment of time and energy.

This aspect is accentuated if there are paperwork requirements or other check-box activities. After about six months, the interfaces are small remnants of the envisioned program.

The more productive programs seek to educate professionals on the benefits of having a mentor and encourage people to find their own match. This strategy works much better because the chemistry is right from the start, and both parties immediately see the huge gains being made by both people.

It is a mutually-supported organic system rather than an activities-based approach. It is pretty obvious how the protégé benefits in a mentor relationship, but how does the mentor gain from it?

Mentors gain significantly in the following ways:

1. The mentor focuses on helping the protégé, which is personally satisfying.
2. The mentor can gain information from a different level of the organization that may not be readily available by any other means.
3. The mentor helps find information and resources for the protégé, so there is some important learning going on. The best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else.
4. While pushing the protégé forward in the organization, the mentor has the ability to return some favors owed to other managers.
5. The mentor gains a reputation for nurturing people and can thus attract better people over time.
6. The mentor can enhance his or her legacy in the organization by creating an understudy.

Encourage a strong mentoring program in your organization, but steer clear of the mechanical match game and the busywork of an overdone process. Let people recognize the benefits and figure out their optimal relationships.

Bob Whipple, MBA, CPLP, is a consultant, trainer, speaker, and author in the areas of leadership and trust. He is the author of: The Trust Factor: Advanced Leadership for Professionals, Understanding E-Body Language: Building Trust Online, and Leading with Trust is Like Sailing Downwind. Bob has many years as a senior executive with a Fortune 500 Company and with non-profit organizations.

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