Tag: Teaching

One of the bad and good things about spending a couple years writing a book is the process requires writing and then deleting a huge amount of text.  This morning, I was reading through some of the scraps from Good Boss, Bad Boss and I ran into an inspired argument from a local CEO (I am not using his name because I didn't ask him if I could use it here, and so I think that is the civil thing to do). This CEO argued that he is most effective at his job when thinks and acts a lot like a teacher.

I wish we could have found a place for this section in the book.  But I've learned (in line with this post quoting Steve Jobs) that if you are an author (or do any other kind of creative work) you not only have to discard a lot of bad ideas, you also have to get rid of a lot of good ideas — otherwise there is too much complexity in the final product and you can't focus your full energy on what matters most.  So every author ends up deleting things he or she loves, and this is one of my favorite "discarded darlings" from Good Boss, Bad Boss.

For this post, I've changed the CEO's name to "Sam," but the rest is just as it would have appeared in the book and reflects multiple emails where this very sharp CEO and I exchanged revisions to reach a point where the text reflected both of our beliefs on the subject.  Here is the excerpt:

Sam reports that to be an empathetic
boss, he has learned to devote close attention to his little facial expressions,
off-hand comments in emails and conversations, and seemingly trivial things like
whether he acknowledges people when passing them in halls.  Sam went on to explain that this becomes
easier when he adopts what might be called a follower-centered mindset:

 
“Life is a lot better when think about my job as one of helping everyone be good,
helping everyone learn whatever they need, and teaching where I've got
experience and expertise. When I think in terms of helping people learn to be
even better, it automatically puts me into an empathetic mode (because
teaching, fundamentally, is about understanding where the learner is coming
from), and that sets up the interaction really well.  I can't always stay in this teaching mode.
Sometimes there are real pressures and things I need to deliver on.  Sometimes external stressors in my life cause
me to forget to be empathetic. But usually now I can notice when it's happening
and correct it.”

As Sam and I talked, we realized that
– whether it is a big important meeting or the most trivial conversation,
email, or blog post – the best bosses seem to keep asking themselves: “Why am I doing this? Is it because I am on
an ego trip and trying to get more goodies and glory for myself?  Or is it really the best thing for enhancing
my people’s collective performance and humanity?”

When bosses can honestly answer the
question with a “yes” (and peers, bosses, and followers concur with their
assessment), good things happen.  People
do good work. They experience dignity and pride in each other. 

 I am so struck by this comment from Sam that I want to repeat it:  "When I think in terms of helping people learn to be
even better, it automatically puts me into an empathetic mode (because
teaching, fundamentally, is about understanding where the learner is
coming
from)."  I believe he is talking about a hallmark of the most admired and effective bosses.

What
do you think of this view of
leadership?  Does it strike you as
right?  Or is it too idealistic? 

P.S. If you read the comments below, you will see that the "anonymous" CEO quoted here has read it and is comfortable with having his name attached.  It is John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, which is most famous for the Firefox browser.   So "Sam" is really "John."  John, thanks for wisdom and great exchanges.  Also, John writes a great blog, which among other things, contains great stuff on all the book's he reads.