It’s ok to sound dumb, and a few other practical ideas on how to lead people
The problem with leadership is there’s much advice about it, but not very much practical advice about it. We like to talk about it through the lens of why (purpose!) or what (excellence!), but the real question is how. How do i start doing it tomorrow, next week, next month.
Sometime last year i asked folks on LinkedIn to share their most powerful ideas on leadership. And i dug a few of my own as well. Not because i lead teams on paper, but because some leadership qualities can emerge in all of us through the day to day practice of our jobs.
Here are a few ideas that stuck with me, and may stick with you too.
1. Make it ok to sound dumb
On LinkedIn, Alex Shahlaei Beeching shared this with me:
“The absurd, the illogical and the downright silly are stepping stones to new concepts and unusual ways if looking at things. Sometimes the wisest course is to play the fool. If the history of ideas shows us one thing, it's this: ground breaking concepts look perfectly rational even if they have been arrived at apparently irrationally. Here's to illogic!”
Which we could pair with this, from Amy Greenwood:
“A good leader is able to demonstrate a growth mindset, that it’s ok to try new crazy things, ok to fail. If a leader can demonstrate strong human qualities, they will create a safe space for trial and error, creativity and innovation. Ogilvy said some of the best ideas come as a jokes.”
As well as this, from Margaret Heffernan:
“Leaders have powerful motive to listen early and often – but are too often afraid of what they might hear. Just being called a leader can be intimidating and many of those I’ve worked with feel it implies omniscience – so they fear asking questions, asking for advice, asking for help.”
In practice, this means we should make it ok to sound a bit dumb over the course of a conversation. Explore dumb ideas in front of the team, in order to make it ok for them to explore dumb ideas in front of you. Normalising dumbness is a gateway to get to incremental creativity.
2. Be a proud propagandist
Propaganda gets a bad rep, except some management and marketing studies, plus lives experience, show that frequency of exposure to a message is really how that message can actually stick in the mind.
In that sense, being a proud propagandist is not a bad thing to be. Especially if that propaganda exists to create a sense of belonging, where we’re all part of a shared thing we are trying to accomplish.
The problem is when there’s a gap between, as Make Work Better says, a company’s values and its culture. Values are the things you say. Culture is how those things are lived by. It’s a clear and powerful distinction:
“Do you understand our values?” This can help communicators understand whether most employees have received adequate information about the company’s stated values.
“Do you believe the company management lives these values?” This can help communicators understand whether the company’s actions reflect these stated values, or whether they are regarded as mere puffery.
“Do you personally feel empowered to make decisions based on these values?” This last question can help communicators understand whether people believe they would be rewarded or punished for acting on company values—and also for pointing out that others are not living up to those values.”
The point of propaganda for leaders, then, is less about getting people to do things they don’t want to, to benefit you. It’s also not about saying the same things over and over again to save face. It’s rather to get people to feel ok doing things that align with previously agreed values. And to feel ok to call out when those values are not respected by others.
3. Think like a hub dynamo
No, not the magician, but the energy generator type you see on bicycle wheels. Sure, leaders should provide clarity, but one way to get to clarity is to first generate energy. Here’s researcher Zach Mercurio on this:
“Human performance is impossible without human energy. A leader's job is not to get people to perform and produce; it's to cultivate an environment that regenerates people's energy so that they can perform and produce.”
And it’s something which we may want to pair with this complementary idea, from Rahul Mandal on LinkedIn:
“I’ve had bosses think of the whackiest brain dumps in front of the whole team. Then they’ll reevaluate and pick out what works, and throw out what doesn’t. I always saw it as a great example of transparency and zero pretence.”
The idea of generating energy with full transparency and zero presence suggests to me a reframe of the role of leaders among their teams. If the standard is that the team generates ideas and a leader selects them, here the dynamic is flipped. The leader generates, the team selects.
And the real benefits of this aren’t just about what a leader brings to the table, but what they leave behind as well. After all, as James Whatley wrote a while ago: “good leaders are defined by the leaders they leave behind”. Indeed. Probably no greater marker of performance than that.
