Curious George and My way IS the highway

Great leaders are Curious George and My way IS the highway, according to my research. In other words, these few ask great questions and, under pressure, make decisions. The best of the best know when to play Curious George and when to make the call – calmly. Don’t miss the “and.”

You, most likely, struggle with one side or the other. As I observe teams during the bomb shelter practice, I simply look for two things in one order. I look to see who began curious and who finished decisive. As the ipad timer winds down and the seconds timer begins to beep, most teammates go turtle. Normal. The few leaders who may have been curious or strangely quiet up until crunch time, get all My way IS the highway when it matters. Good.

Southwest Airlines uses this same “bomb shelter” tool as an interviewing technique. They agree with BTL even though we’ve never met. They want to hire associates who are genuinely curious and decisive under pressure. And, their policy is to be decisive toward their customers. They are not perfect in their execution, neither are any of us. However, SWA & BTL both agree that great leaders are hard to find and two key ingredients are an insatiable curiosity and decisiveness under pressure.

Want a few better leaders around you? Ask better questions during your interviews. Put people under pressure early and often. Be on the lookout for the quiet and curious. And, be more leery of the ones who look and play the part. Bomb shelter kinda simulations are fun and tough but they don’t do anything unless you, the observer, know what to look for.

Curious and decisive. Look for it. And, once you have a team around you, keep practicing to build strong teammates into elite ones. Never stop. And, btw, I hope you noticed the word change in the catch phrase of this rant. Good…