5 Brave Post-Election Questions for Leaders

The surprise results of the 2016 Presidential election begs many questions. For leaders, there are meaningful parallels to draw. How vulnerable are you to to detrimental surprises in your company? Your wisdom as a leader is based on what you know. Your decisions and behaviors come from what you know. So, what do you really know?

What is your risk of being blindsided with your business, like so many experts with this election?
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​Correlating with what contributed to the surprises with the election, here are 5 questions to ask yourself.

1. Am I labeling employees as "stupid" or "ridiculous?" In applying these personal judgments, we have fallen into the trap of attribution bias, and we have established our excuse for not listening to them. It's juvenile. It's a poor example. It's an excuse for not being humble and brave enough to listen. Or you're failing to deal with a legit performance issue, which is a different problem.
2. Am I taking time to consider all opinions? Or are you in a happy echo chamber? Do you pause to consider what hidden gems of insight the outlier )who may be labeled as a pain in the #**) may be offering? Adam Grant's book Originalschallenges our thinking about non-conformists. You can get the short version through this article or his TED talk, both of which can help tune your awareness for how such folks work and the value they bring.
3. Am I probing for why someone has the perspective that they do? For example your employees may say that they hate your health insurance plan. What exactly bothers them? Digging into this is a simple 5 Whys exercise from the world of Six Sigma. You may find that what is really bothering them is that they cannot access health care because of your attendance policies, which is something you can change. It's common that the initial complaint is too general and possibly even misplaced, and people need help digging into what the root issue is. Take the time to do this. We all need this help at times.
4. Am I fostering group dynamics that hinder thinking and learning? Are you aware when cascading is happening with your group meetings? Herd mentality? The pollsters fell for it. Are you? Thinking, Fast and Slow will change how you view and plan meetings. Check out the summary.
5. Am I communicating clearly? If you probe into what people are thinking and see that they genuinely are misinformed, that is a communication failure from leadership. We've not really connected the dots. We're requiring mind-reading. We've not repeated enough. We are the problem, not them. This then requires us to find more humility, delve into how best to communicate with people, and exercise the patience and discipline to do so.

Asking these difficult questions is core to being an effective leader and fostering the kinds of leaders we want in our companies, and a healthy culture that supports productivity, growth and sustainability. Be brave. Don't be blindsided.