TAKING COMMAND! ACHIEVING YOUR OBJECTIVES.: uncertainty

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

No News Is Bad News

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NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS

In Silence, People Tend To Think The Worst

In Management And Leadership, Frequent Communication Is Essential

From An Article In The TAKING COMMAND! Blog By Douglas E. Castle

During prolonged periods of silence, people are left to wonder; that wondering leads to visualization of negative possibilities and potentials (generally speaking, and in accord with the basic insecurities of Human Beings). The longer and more absolute the silence, the more these negative thoughts tend to propagate.

If you are a leader, manager or commander and you are silent, any one or several of the following assumptions will likely be made regarding your lack of communication – ironically, your lack of communication speaks volumes:

~ You are overwhelmed by your workload, and you are not competent to handle the enormous responsibilities of leadership;

~ You are either ignoring your responsibilities and/or are searching for another role to play in another organization;

~ You have received devastatingly negative news that you are afraid to confront or announce;

~ You are disappointed in the work being performed by your subordinates, and you are either too disgusted with them to communicate with them or you are passively/aggressively punishing those guilty parties by depriving them of your attention;

~ You have lost your impetus and momentum as a driver, and are not accomplishing anything – therefore, you've nothing about which to converse.

Any of the above suppositions, all of which are common in cases of a lack of top-down communication, are bad for your personal brand, effectiveness, and relationship with your troops (or employees). You will be rendered less of a standard-bearer and more of a bag of ballast – and those who report to you will think 1) that the ship may be sinking on your watch, or 2) that they are failing you significantly enough to be rendered unworthy of your attention.

Communication, powerful and frequent, is one of the hallmarks of a truly good leader.

Those whom you are charged with the responsibility of leading must know your status as well as their own in order for the enterprise not to fall prey to the ever-disabling rumor mill.

Good leadership requires good communication skills as well as charisma and all of the other personality and management-style attributes we've discussed so many times before on the Taking Command Blog.

If you need a quick reminder (in the style of the late lawyer Johnny Cochran), “If you don't converse, things will get worse.”

Whether the news is good or bad – don't ever let your troops, employees or teammates think that you are an introvert or an escapist. Introverted personalities may make for fine actuaries, but they make for poor leaders.

Douglas E. Castle

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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Indecision:The Enemy Of Leadership

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Each of us is faced with an incredible number of decisions, large and small, consequential and inconsequential every single day. Deciding for ourselves and deciding for others

Sometimes it feels as if there are days when we were trying to navigate a fragile vessel through an asteroid belt without getting clobbered before we've found our way to a safe landing.

Decision making comes more naturally to some of us than to others, but the one thing that we all seem to share is that the more the perceived significance of the decision (to us, and about those whom we care), the more of a challenge making a choice between alternatives becomes.

Some of us ruminate over the choices, while some of us become either paralyzed or ostrich-like, hiding our heads in the sand. Making substantial broad-reaching decisions among alternatives quickly, with a sense of commitment to our ultimate choice (whatever that choice may be) is one of the greatest skills of leadership.

While in the seat of command, you will instill a sense of confidence in your wisdom, personal power, and your overall ability to lead amongst your employees, recruits, troops, followers or even colleagues if you willingly, rapidly evaluate choices and make decisions as if they were royal pronouncements. Either you will ultimately have been right, or wrong, but no matter -- you will have exercised the courage and conviction to walk into fearsome circumstances.

If you are very conservative, if you are more frightened of the consequences of decisions than of the definitive act of expediently setting a course, you will lose your respect and standing as a leader.

Indecision is indeed the enemy of leadership.

We are are very much like children, wanting someone else to take responsibility for decisions for fear that they might be wrong -- but the person who gets the respect is always a decider.

There is neither movement nor progress when decisions are delayed or avoided by a titular commander who is afraid to play the world's most high stakes game of multiple choice.

Douglas E. Castle for The Taking Command Blog