Brief

Leaders can make it safe for their team to bring concerns to them by regularly soliciting feedback, listening deeply even if they disagree and speaking last in meetings to allow others to be heard, writes Dina Smith, president of Cognitas. “Speaking last encourages your team to put their ideas and suggestions on the table, helps them feel listened to, and boosts ownership and team morale,” Smith writes.

 

Insight

The higher leaders go, the more likely they are to find themselves in an echo chamber, surrounded by people who think like them and agree with them. This occurs partly because of the affinity bias, which leads us to favor, associate with, and hire the people to whom we feel most similar.

This dearth of diverse perspectives is further compounded by a couple of issues: problem-solving methods that lead to groupthink and the difficulty of establishing psychological safety. Collectively, these forces can result in leaders getting stuck in an echo chamber.

And while most leaders are aware of these forces and work to create a team culture that fosters voice and candor, subtle leadership behaviors can get in the way of their intentions.

For example, take my client Aviral, whose overly Socratic method of communication resulted in team members hesitating to bring ideas to him until they were “fully baked.” Or Michael, whose pacesetting style caused people to feel like they were imposing on his time and shouldn’t bother him with questions and concerns.

Or Melissa, whose habit of frequently saying “no,” “but,” or “however” discouraged her team from providing feedback or offering dissenting opinions at meetings.To guard against the strategic disadvantages of being stuck in an echo chamber, practice the following behaviors:

 

Continuously solicit feedback and ideas.

No matter how egalitarian and open you are as a leader, chances are high that many of your people withhold valuable information, ideas, and concerns from you.

 

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