7 Things Good Leaders Just Don’t Say
“No, that’s dumb, what else?” my old boss asked during a brainstorming session.
The new employee who offered the idea visibly shrunk down in her chair and didn’t offer any more ideas that day. His obtuse and dismissive response to an idea that may not have been the best had a damaging effect on her creativity and confidence.
He should have just said “OK, thanks, let’s keep these ideas coming!” or something like that. Being honest is part of leadership, but much more effective when tact accompanies the honesty.
If a boss wants people to be creative and find the best solutions to problems they need to be willing to hear many bad ideas if they want the best ideas to rise to the top.
As someone who has studied and practiced leadership in corporate, military, and volunteer settings for over 20 years, I have seen leaders say some unproductive and even damaging things.
Here are a few of them.
#1. “Bring Me Solutions, Not Problems”
This sentiment comes from an understandable place in that you want to say “hey, don’t just sit here crying about a problem, what ideas do you have to fix it?”
