When the leader learns, the organization wins!

I was fascinated by GSK’s culture of efficiency and performance when I joined the company eight years ago as Turkey VP & GM. When confronted with an issue, solutions were developed rapidly, and the company was very responsive in adjusting the course of action depending on the outcome. After a while we, the leadership team, noticed that issues that were addressed already in the past were brought up again and again. Although we tried to redefine the root cause and develop new solution, we continued to fail on some specific issues which also revealed itself in engagement survey results. At some point we needed to accept, we had been doing something wrong, we failed to really hear and understand the real problem.

By exposing ourselves to the truth as sincerely as possible, we embraced our vulnerability. We were overwhelmed by finding solutions and taking immediate actions for emerging concerns. First, we needed to face with this reality. To walk through in this vulnerability, one needs to put a distance between himself and the current situation, which eventually ends up moving into curiosity zone. Only in this curiosity zone one starts to ask real questions. And in our case, it all changed with one question which sincerely arouse with the motivation to understand: “Why”.

Persistent in our curiosity, we aimed to hear what was missing while addressing the problems.  We had to show the necessary commitment to hear more about root causes from whom already defining the problems; employees. We needed to be courageous enough to build platforms for our employees who were experiencing the problems to work together on solution proposals. 

At GSK, we saw the power of co-creation when everyone exercised accountability. Together with accountability, the impact of key leadership expectations, courage, development and team work, paved the way for us to unlearn our old insights and adopt completely novel perspectives.

This was not an easy task, but over time we set the foundations of a growth mindset that would extend throughout the whole corporation and started a new engagement approach for all of us. 

That is why we did not only make the Great Place to Work (GPtW) list in our first time but also came in first in our category in Turkey. We also continued to be a GPtW in the following years. This learning velocity for leaders is obviously contagious.

Now, leading the Emerging Markets Central, I live the proud of co-creating best places to work with curious and courageous leaders in KSA and Gulf.

I believe it will continue to effect other countries and we will continue to be the employer of choice across the region.  

This whole experience made me realize that one cannot find the right solution without being vulnerable and facing real issues, just like very well formulated by Brene Brown in Dare to Lead book.

As one becomes vulnerable, they become curious as well. The combination of curiosity and courage cultivates a motivation to take action. However, where there is curiosity and courage, one first fails. Failures are not only opportunities for us to learn and do better but also, they are the check points for us to show if we really dare to show curiosity and dare to continue to stay outside of our comfort zone. As long as leaders see each other being vulnerable, curious and courageous; they start to embrace their own vulnerability and this experience is meant to be contagious, spreads across the whole organization which makes the growth mindset embedded to the DNA of organizational culture.

Therefore; when the leader learns, the organization wins. You can reach a serious potential for success only when you leverage growth mindset fueled by curiosity and courage to drive the momentum to move exponentially.