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Peter Bregman on a leadership strategy that creates space for people so they can come up with their own answers
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Let's let him talk to our guests are Peter Bregman.
Who's gonna talk to us about management and about to the idea of leaders -- -- -- at some point.
Getting out of the way your leadership consultant.
Peter -- thank you for being with us.
And you know.
A lot of times especially I think in this we believe in dynamic leaders and people with a vision people like Mark Zuckerberg even old guys like Barry Diller they have a singular vision and they go after it.
But you come up now with.
The counterpunch of that what you say is if we're we're in danger of not letting the people beneath these big leaders contribute enough so tells about that yet and I'm not suggesting weak leadership and I'm actually suggesting that actually takes a tremendous amount of strength.
To say.
I don't have all the answers and if you guys contribute that would be helpful to the company and not only that but you will end up owning the outcome much more.
If you feel like you've been part of the solution and you've developed the solution like me the idea came up -- -- that I try to get my kids to eat vegetables.
-- go to a farm they pull up like carrot.
And they are more excited than ever -- that -- than they would be to -- a cupcake.
Because that's on the do -- that's not gonna do that they actually pull that out of the ground and they sought and they owned and they feel like -- -- in the really excited to you'd.
-- the same concept actually would leadership and organizations the up and yet.
Most of the biggest greatest companies we've seen bill.
Have come from visionaries who kind of led the way and ask questions later mean Zuckerberg did that and -- -- 900 million people into the tent.
At FaceBook to jump on board his.
His service and and certainly got the Google guys say there's two guys sit together who thought they wanted to make this search engine thing and then the next thing you know they create one of the most successful.
Tech companies ever how does the leader know the leader of a department or leader -- company an entire company.
How they know when they've done enough to get everybody started.
And how do you know when you're not doing enough to get them started great great great question.
And and I'm not saying by the way they leaders shouldn't be visionary I think it takes that's it that's the leader's role in many ways is to have a vision is to pave the ways to see the direction that they're moving -- But when we'll leave their leaders begin to micromanage when they begin to how all of the answers that's when they get their own -- -- how they know when when they're getting their way.
One of the ways -- is their energy in the organization to people feel energized to people feel like they're coming up with ideas and working really hard.
Think about yourself.
If you come up with an idea would you work harder on that idea that if someone else told you do best -- it's actually a model Peter applies for all the journalists -- the best ideas.
Come from the the rank and file up until you're one of those top -- and then as far as you're concerned the best ideas come from you -- now ahead head that's exactly right and and you you know -- work.
Ten times harder at an idea that you've come up with.
Then you well -- an idea to execute an idea that someone else came up with right and so -- all I'm saying -- leaders -- harness that -- tremendous power this tremendous inspiration.
That comes from letting someone do something that came out of their idea what -- -- leader do when you're trying to open up and give them ownership of the idea.
But their ideas really sock that's a great question -- a great question.
Boundaries it's really helpful not to just say everybody come up with ideas and -- -- -- In fact Google is in fact famous for giving you 20% of your time to work on anything you want to -- Right that's so that you look at the leaders of Google and they say it's all its all the leaders.
But actually that 20% of the time comes up with a tremendous number of great ideas yes and so what you do though is you create boundaries in terms of what you want to actually execute or the ideas that you want people to come up -- and you say within these boundaries.
You go crazy come up with an idea we we executed a performance review system this -- -- an organization and we basically said.
Here's the focus the focus isn't great conversations.
Between managers and employees and that's all we care about if you have better ideas as to how to get to that outcome.
We want to hear it.
But if your ideas don't do performance reviews -- all their waste of time well that's not gonna help us achieve that outcome of having great conversations between employees and -- and managers so we're not going to be able to take an idea.
At what point do you run the risk if I'm a leader and I'm let my department chip then.
At the fact that you too many opinions could end up standing off the rough edges -- -- something to where you end up with -- is not quite as pure and instead it's a compromise.
That came from ten different people getting all working together a great point also all ideas don't have to be accepted.
So what you want to do is keep focusing and focusing in focusing the ideas so that they hone in on what you're trying to create.
And great leadership is also being able to say -- you know that's not gonna work but I've heard you.
There's great research that shows that what people need is to be heard as much as -- yeah right.
-- do you have any kind of age adjusted research because it seems to me that.
You don't employees who are you know little -- something pops.
When you give them constructive criticism as I sometime have have done I was managing editor Forbes magazine for number years before I moved into television and lost all power.
Entirely.
They have been getting really rather precious and cranky when you criticize -- all when -- -- got to do a better way.
Do you think that younger workers are anymore.
Hurt by criticism that workers in the thirties and forties BC anything about this and -- to leader to do about it you know it's I wanna be a little more subtle about it because I think that's -- -- a lot of -- But I think that's true.
But it it's not just about being heard by having an idea criticized it's also about kind of how it's criticized how often they've had their ideas criticized.
Whether we could find elements of idea that's useful.
Sometimes when we criticize that I'm not saying do this but sometimes when we criticize we'll sort of push the person down and -- -- they're gonna get really hurt.
Insecure people will feel even when their ideas pushed down that they're pushed out.
That's not anybody's -- -- that we.
So it's about helping to people people to understand that you know pushing them down the idea itself isn't -- -- -- for a don't talk about the person why do you always do this instead talk about the idea exactly.
-- now than the -- I do that when I'm from the top down.
The problem is whenever I hear the slightest bit of suggestion or criticism from I instantly taken entirely personal -- -- -- -- -- thinking about me at all right right but it's been.
Very very hard not to take things personally would -- just say it's hard to -- what -- -- A -- in the track puts them just been given direction.
As you can tell -- -- camera if this so stick around to be fun to watch probably have a comment from.
Can you read this.
-- -- instead it's a note from the desk asking me if I can read this -- someone writes in the -- motivate people.
Isn't that the prime mission function of a community organizer -- little -- -- -- there from someone make an Obama joke.
What about that does sound really to have a cutesy intently community organizer what you're saying here Peter.
Well I think it's not a question of whether it's cute or not the real the real question does it work.
Right it's a very simple question all I care about is whether the support so so taking the politics out of it the question is if you give someone.
A chance to follow through on one of their own ideas will they work harder to execute it.
And you know from your experience and -- for -- -- just so -- question -- the challenge for leaders is how do we do that and you asked the perfect question how do we do that and keep.
The business keep the huge.
Truck moving in the right direction right right highway -- it -- up by creating the boundaries so that they can make their own decisions within the highway they don't drive off the road -- I think the.
