Teapot Candor
Posted on 28. Oct, 2011 by Adrian in Blog, Orange
I was sitting in the back of the room yesterday at a Proctor & Gamble leadership training session listening to Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone, who spoke before me. He believes when a culture tries to keep the truth in, when workplaces are too nice and don’t have honest discussions, it’s frustrating and dangerously demoralizing for employees.
He likens it to putting a teapot on the stove. Eventually either the top will blow off, manifested in our teams in temper blowups; or you’ll get little spurts out of the top of the pot, in our teams employees show us this through passive-aggressive bursts.
To spur honesty in his firm, Keith says he has conducted anonymous surveys of his employees—where they are able to write what bugs them about him, the boss, without fear of retribution. A sobering and refreshing idea.
We wrote about this concept in our book The Orange Revolution. Our 350,000-person survey found a much higher degree of honesty and openness in the best teams. We called this a “no surprises” culture. What follows are just three leadership traits that can encourage such openness:
Respect. Great managers acknowledge and appreciate ideas from all levels of the organization—actively seeking input if it isn’t forthcoming.
Availability. It’s hard to be honest with a boss who always seems too busy, who only swoops in now and then. Effective leaders create regular face-to-face time with their people.
Broadcast. Great teams share deadlines, obstacles and other important issues openly with every team member. Goals and progress reports are posted for everyone to see.
In the most productive, profitable places, leaders leave the pillows at home, the tendency man of us have to try to soften the blow; and they encourage everyone to argue until the best ideas come out. Don’t let your teapot boil.
Think Orange!
About Adrian Gostick
Adrian Gostick is a global thought leader on workplace strategy and the author of several successful books on employee engagement. The Carrot Principle by Simon & Schuster has been a regular New York Times bestseller, and 24-Carrot Manager has been called a “must read for modern-day managers” by Larry King of CNN. His latest book, The Orange Revolution, was a #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller."
The Carrot Principle
Human performance accelerated? Is this book about the work place or the human race?
With breakthrough research of 200,000 people over ten years from The Jackson Organization, and massive, new global data collected by Towers Perrin, The Carrot Principle demonstrates how constructive praise and meaningful rewards powerfully motivates people from every walk of life and inspires employees to excel, engage, and bring their best to work every day.
The Orange Revolution
Following the enormous popularity of their bestselling The Carrot Principle, Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton return with a groundbreaking guide to building high-performance teams. The powerful research reported inThe Orange Revolution reveals that the true driver of exceptional success for great companies is not a genius CEO. Breakthrough success is driven by a particular breed of breakthrough team that generates its own momentum.
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