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818. When Good People Stop Speaking Up: What Silence Says About Leadership · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Each day we share stories and insights to help you find be and build your influence in a positive and responsible way.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Greg Clino, partner at IE Business Advisors, and co-host of Daily Influence.
• 0:32
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• 0:38
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• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody, Brian Smith here with the I&T series in your daily influence.
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there is something that happens inside organizations that leaders don't always recognize soon enough.
• 0:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's people stop talking not literally.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: They still attend meetings, they still answer emails, and they still do their jobs.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: They may even tell you everything is fine.
• 1:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: But they stop telling you what they really think.
• 1:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: They stop challenging an idea.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: They stop pointing out the problem everybody can see.
• 1:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: They stop offering the suggestions.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: They don't think anybody is going to listen to anyway.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when that happens, leaders sometimes make the mistake of believing the signs means alignment.
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it doesn't.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes silence is actually information.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And today I want to talk about what happens when good people stop speaking up and why.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: responsible leaders need to pay attention to the environment their influence is creating.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the most dangerous assumptions hey leader can make is that because nobody objected everybody agreed and you know think about the meetings you've been in.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Someone proposes an idea the leader asks does anybody have any concerns and nobody says anything then the meeting ends then the real meetings start to happen and the whole way on teams
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: more between two people after everybody leaves.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why does this happen?
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes people don't believe speaking up will change anything.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes they've tried before and sometimes they've learned that disagreement creates consequences.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes the leader is unintentionally trained in the entire organization that agreement is safer than honesty.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's an influence issue.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And as leaders, we have to ask ourselves, have I created an environment where people can respectfully challenge me?
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Possible influence doesn't mean everyone agrees.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Responsible influence means people know they can disagree and still be valued.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: We talk a lot in the Iron Team series about the fact that influence is always happening.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is a perfect example.
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Every time somebody brings you bad news, challenges you're thinking, admiss a mistake or races a concern, your reaction teaches them something.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you become defensive, dismissive, angry, sarcastic, or immediately start looking for somebody to blame, people will remember, maybe not consciously, but they do adjust.
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: The next time they know something you need to hear, they calculate whether the telling you is worth the risk.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Eventually, you can have an organization filled with intelligent, capable people who know exactly what is wrong and a leader who doesn't know any of it.
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's not because the team failed to communicate.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: They have to be willing to ask whether leadership training them not to.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is where self awareness because incredibly important.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Don't only evaluate what you say, evaluate what happens around you because of how you respond.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: We shouldn't wait for our crisis to discover whether people feel comfortable communicating honestly, create the expectation before you need it.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is where smart management becomes valuable.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Make communications, a specific, what information needs to go, make it measurable, how do we know the communication actually occurred and was understood and make it attainable and rather give people appropriate channels to communicate information to the people who can actually do something about it.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And make it timely, because information that arrives after a decision has been made or a problem has grown, isn't nearly as useful as information delivered while we still have an opportunity to act.
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Leaders also need to intentionally ask better questions instead of everybody good.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: How about trying, what am I missing?
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: What could go wrong with this?
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Who sees this differently?
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And maybe one of the most important and most powerful.
• 4:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: What are we not talking about that we should be?
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then be prepared to listen to the answer because asking for honesty and punishing it when it arrives is worse than never asking at all.
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: So today, I want you to pay attention to the silence around you.
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not just what people are telling you, what aren't they telling you?
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Who used to contribute ideas, but doesn't anymore?
• 5:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Who has stopped challenging your thinking?
• 5:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Where has healthy disagreement been replaced by quiet compliance?
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And before assuming that's their problem, have enough self-awareness to ask whether your influence contributed to it.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Every reaction, every conversation, every decision teaches the people around you something about who you are and what they can expect from you.
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So create an environment where people don't simply feel comfortable telling you what you want to hear.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Create one where they feel responsible for telling what you need to hear.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Find your influence.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Be the influence and
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith, and this has been your daily influence.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Join us again.