When we decide to lead, one of the primal feeling that we have to face is the fear of looking stupid to the people whom we lead. As Marshall Goldsmith says in this video, this fear of looking stupid is very deep and a primal fear.
The more intelligent and smart we are the stronger this fear is. Marshall also talks about what we can do about this.
As leaders it is not about showing how smart we are but to bring out the smartness and intelligence of the people that we lead and help them succeed. As he says that this is simple in theory but extremely difficult in practice.
We have all known leaders who always tend to make decisions that make them look smart irrespective of whether they are the smart decisions to make. These are typically leaders, who tend to make their decisions in isolation. These are also leaders who are absolutely confident in their decisions.
As leaders, we can never be a 100% confident of the decisions we make because there is nothing in this world that we can be a 100% sure of. So, smart leaders are always open to seeing a differing perspective, they know that some of their decisions will be wrong and are always looking for clues on how the assumptions based on which they made the decisions are playing out.
Also, great leaders know that looking at a specific decision from multiple perspectives is better than looking at it from one perspective. So, they involve their team and ask them for their perspective. They are also not afraid to share their own perspective but do so after having heard all the other perspectives.
Even though they might have to take ownership and decide based on the feedback, they do so after having heard the different perspectives, knowing fully well, that they could be wrong. Great leaders know that when they try to avoid looking stupid, they increase the chances of them being stupid.
