Do You Ever Try To "Wing It"?

What do you know? What do you think you know? What do you pretend you know?

I have been part of the engineering industry since 1999, and in that time I have worked with an automotive company, a gas and heating company, and many railway companies. All these types of companies have a lot of things in common, but one of the main things is “gossip.”

You probably know this yourself. I don’t think one day went past when I didn’t hear a new rumour about someone or something, throughout my whole career.

These rumours usually came from people who either just made them up, or they heard something and got the totally wrong end of the stick.

It was incredible because as I climbed the leadership ladder, I found that no matter what level you are in the organisation, the rumours are spread everywhere.

They could have come from the highest level in the organisation or from the lowest. Everybody spread the gossip.

The reason people spread gossip or rumours was to try and get everybody else to see them as “go to” people for information. They thought that this would make them more credible within the organisation or their department.

But, most of the time the information they spread was either untrue, or completely off from the actual truth. So most of the time, their credibility would be lost because they were spreading misinformation.

I found it strange that people who didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, would spread information that they were not even 50% sure of.

Rumours and gossip can come from every level of the organisation or industry, not just at the lower level teams. Sometimes it becomes a rumour by default because the CEO says something they believe to be true, but doesn’t 100% know it.

Then someone who was in earshot of the CEO may spread what they say, and it turns out to be untrue. That will discredit the CEO because everyone will know it came from him/her.

Others may receive information from someone they confide in 100% and would not believe that they would give them false information. So with that belief in tact, the information will be spread, which again turns out to be untrue.

This will discredit the person spreading the information, and also the source of the information, which is the person who they 100% confide in.

A highly effective leader at all costs will not spread any information unless they know 100% that the information is a fact. They will never spread something that they are less than 100% sure of.

A highly effective leader values very highly their credibility and integrity. If they share something that they are unsure of, they risk losing their credibility and integrity, so they will avoid doing that.

If you spread something that you do not have 100% certainty that it is true, then you are placing a very high risk on yourself. You will lose your credibility and integrity, and your reputation as a highly effective leader will be damaged.

All the best,

Tom Lawrence (Highly Effective Leader)