A Leadership question :
Are your people are doing the best they can…. with what they have …. Right now?
Are you able to assume this as a leader? Of sales or any staff in general or people in your life?
Like with many parts of Brene Brown – Dare to Lead, this did strike me as a key theme and a fundamental leadership principle.
Like with many other principles she gives readers to work with, this one also gives me comfort that this is the right way to approach leadership as the alternative is really too awful to contemplate.
After all, if the people in your work or home life are NOT doing the best they can with the guidance, direction and support they have been given, then what?
Then one has to assume they are conspiring to do less, to oppose you, to undermine, that they know better but consciously want to do less and worse in terms of the outcomes you feel they should be chasing.
As Brene shares in the book and below links, the foundational skill for assuming the best in people is about setting and maintaining boundaries.
What does she mean by these boundaries..? what does that mean for me.. (and you)
From the online examples, saying NO sounds like a key principle that maybe people need to say more, ie not accepting the goals or tasks set by others if those are actually not aligned with their capacity or capability.
This is hard in any environment but I think the leadership principle here is to ensure that anyone you are providing leadership to, understands clearly what their capacity and capability is, and more importantly that you do as well. If you need them to do one thing or many and those goals are beyond their abilities or its not clear how to get there, then the responsibility does come back to the leadership.
This is not about spoon feeding either, or setting a low bar. I do believe people are inspired and motivated when they are fulfilling their strengths and passions in their day and their work.
My take on boundaries is this, a boundary is clear definition of what you expect others to do, and also what part you are going to do, to enable that. I’ve been guilty for sure of stepping over and into those boundaries to do the job I’ve asked others to do, simply because it was not getting done.
And sometimes the boundary has probably not been explained well enough or perhaps enough support given to get that done.
The message around positive intent is a lot clearer and easier to understand and work with.
The belief that people are doing the best they can is the belief that underpins positive intent.
I’m totally on board with it, and as per the below examples, once you do assume people are doing their best, the question must come back to leadership if they are not seeing the results they want, ie “how can I do more?”
Below is the blog from which the short extracts are lifted for the full read.
https://www.thegrowthfaculty.com/blog/BrenBrowntoptipassumeothersaredoingthebesttheycan
The vulnerability researcher and TED talk sensation, says:
- Most people don’t have the skills to set boundaries;
- Only 50% of people that her team interviewed believed others were doing the best they can.
Dr Brown says the most compassionate and generous people she’d interviewed in her career were the most boundaried.
She writes: “It turns out that we assume the worst about people’s intentions when they’re not respectful of our boundaries: It’s easy to believe that they are trying to disappoint us on purpose.”
Dr Brown says daring leaders work from the assumption that people are doing the best they can; whereas leaders struggling with ego, armour, and/or lack of skills do not make that assumption.
She shares an exercise where she asks people to write down the name of someone who fills them with frustration, disappointment, and/or resentment, and then she proposes the idea that that person is doing the best they can.
One man responded:
“If he’s doing the best he can, I’m a total jerk, and I need to stop harassing him and start helping him.”
Dr Brown writes that asking leaders to answer this question is difficult because they must move from pushing and grinding on the same issues to the more difficult task of teaching their team, reassessing their skill gaps, reassigning them, or letting them go.
“It’s a commitment to stop respecting and evaluating people based solely on what we think they should accomplish, and start respecting them for who they are, and holding them accountable for what they’re actually doing,” she says.
It also means when we’re overwhelmed and struggling, turning those positive assumptions towards ourselves:
“I’m doing the very best I can right now.”
Some of the PDF’s and BB content also below from her website.
https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/BRAVING.pdf