TOPIC OF THE WEEK: Try being the idiot in the room for a bit...

?? "COFFEE AND CULTURE" VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Struggling to solve a problem that just won't go away? Have you really understood the root cause of the problem, or are you just treating the symptoms?

Try this to instantly get to the root cause and THEN put solutions in place...

?? PERSONAL STORY OF VULNERABILITY: You're not always ready for leadership...even if you want to be...

I wasn't ready for leadership.

In fact, I was very young, naive, and inexperienced.

STORY TIME:

My good friend's father is an extremely accomplished businessman. His opinion and perspective means a lot to me.

So when I was 2 years into one of my formative outside sales jobs, I took him to lunch (actually he always pays...but I offered!) and asked his opinion. I wanted to get into a VP of sales role. I wanted to take the skills I had learned and pour into others.

He was extremely clear with me: I was NOT ready.

UGH.

I hated that, and really hoped to hear the exact opposite.

But what's the point of turning to experienced, wiser mentors if you're just going to disagree with them and do what you want anyway?

I was seriously tempted to do just that...leave my job where I was making great money, and go get a VP of sales role. Why? Because I thought I was hot stuff (sigh...I hate to admin my hubris). I thought that selling well meant I was prepared to lead well.

But being a great individual contributor and being a great leader are very different skillsets.

Are you actually ready for your next step? How do you know?

Have you consulted with wiser, more experienced people who know you well to get their perspective and guidance?

I ultimately took my mentor's advice and stuck it out at that job. And you know what? He was right.

I wasn't ready.

Now, looking back, getting a leadership position at that point in my career would have been disastrous.

?? Don't rush.

?? Get good advice from wise mentors.

?? Take the good advice from wise mentors and, more often than not, follow it.

They are experienced and wise for a reason.

?? PERSONAL GROWTH CHALLENGE: Be the idiot in the room...

Be the idiot.

Every one of us has sat in a room with a group of people who are talking about important, complicated, confusing things. In the midst of colleagues using work acronyms that you’re still learning, complex industry phrases that make your head spin, and internal slang that you never seem to truly understand, it’s easy to shut your mouth amidst a fear of looking foolish because you don't understanding everything that’s being said.

But rather than sitting in the discomfort of your lack of understanding, use it as an opportunity to be the voice for others in the room who may feel the same confusion.

Speak up.

Ask the “dumb question.”

As Simon Sinek says, "be the idiot” in the room. Often, your confusion is also the confusion held by others in the group, but their own fears of speaking up are hidden, just like yours.

By verbalizing what others in the room may be thinking as well, you unlock the following:

1. Opportunity for clarity: With confusion removed, everyone can clearly understand the topic at hand. Only with true clarity can momentum and growth occur. Otherwise, people in the room may leave the conversation unclear on the topic discussed, unclear on next steps, unclear as to their personal role in the process, and unclear as to the short term or long term implications.
2. Opportunity to challenge: When everybody actually understands what’s being discussed, there may be an ability to challenge the assertions being made. Through the challenging of ideas you create friction that ultimately hones and refines an idea.
3. Opportunity to create safety and vulnerability: By speaking up you continue building a culture where it is perceived as safe to be confused and vulnerable, promoting the freedom for others, then or in the future, to similarly speak up. Speak up. Be the idiot. Create a better work culture.

?? Hey, I'm Joel. I'd love to get to know you.

?? I'm obsessed with changing the world by loving people at work.

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