I give advice to executives for a living. I give pretty good advice. It’s expensive. The advice is valuable.
While working with an advisor like myself is a great idea, if you’re depending on ONLY outside advice you’re missing out.
When was the last time as a leader you were given advice by someone within your organization that does not report directly to you?
This is a loaded question. There are a few things implied when you seek out and receive advice from members of your team:
- You’re comfortable being vulnerable.
- Employees feel engaged in the process of their mission.
- You respect the knowledge and experience of your organization.
- You model learning and teaching.
- Intelligence from the street is valued.
There are a number of great leadership things happening when you consciously seek out advice from inside the organization. Empowerment, engagement, pride, ownership, and knowledge sharing are the results.
This isn’t possible if you are the type of leader who must have all the answers and tell people what to do.
A CEO and I were sitting in his office one day. He wanted to talk about an innovation brain storm meeting to identify a breakthrough product for the future. Yay, let’s schedule a meeting.
I suggested a prerequisite. There were a few hundred service technicians visiting his customers every single day. The suggestion was for the CEO to call a couple of these folks and ask them what they would recommend based on their knowledge of the customers. Guess what? An idea came up to make a key piece of equipment self-diagnosing saving countless hours of maintenance time, increasing customer satisfaction, and creating a market differentiator. Big value.
There is hidden value within your organization. Ask and you shall receive.
