DaVinci, according to most experts, is recognized as the greatest genius of all time. The guy painted, designed bridges, helicopters, and parachutes. He performed the first autopsy and much, much more. He’s worth studying.
His first essential for building your genius is simple and rare. Ask curious questions. Ask the experts. Ask the simpleton. Ask your friends. Ask your enemy. Survey strangers and students. Ask the very old and the very young. Ask those that are like you and those that are NOT. And, most importantly, ask your truth tellers.
CEO’s mostly suck at asking open ended, and curious questions of those around them. They’ve bought the lie that, as the leader, they are supposed to be the “Shell Answer Man,” even when they’re not. Most of their questions instead of being open and curious, are leading. “Hey Richard, I booked this meeting at 8:30, didn’t I,” isn’t curious, it’s simply leading your follower to tell you what you want to hear. Most leaders do this without thinking and without awareness.
During a recent practice, I had the chance to observe a CEO attempting to improve his questioning technique. Epic fail. He led the witness better than a trial lawyer. He learned nothing. He was told what he wanted to hear, it wasn’t close to the truth. I offered him a tiny taste of some and was greeted with the Heisman mid sentence. Sadly, instead of gaining traction toward becoming a domain specific genius, this CEO continued his well worn path toward isolation.
CEO’s, like this one, don’t get better with age you see. They get more isolated. They develop CEO disease and live in an information vacuum of their own making. Surrounded by “yes men & women,” these leaders get exactly the team they deserve. Over time and through adversity, this team will be left wanting.
CEO disease is real and rampant. You rarely know you have it until it’s too late. The antidote is simple. Swallow your pride and start building a stable of curious questions. It’ll only hurt for awhile. Pretty soon better answers will appear from the most surprising sources. Leaders, remember, are some kinda crazy combination. At BTL, we believe the best ones are “my way IS the highway and Curious George.” Yes, there’s no question, we’re weird…
How would your team describe Y.O.U.?
BUILT TO LEAD 