Leaders can lose perspective very easily. If a leader develops a sense of entitlement, his or her actions expose a lack of perspective, and ultimately, bring about a loss of respect from their teams. Pat Cormier shares an example of one such situation. One that – if you’re not paying attention – could just as well happen to you in your own organization.
Here’s a timely story with a leadership lesson about entitlement, belief, and perspective. No, this isn’t about Ebenezer Scrooge, but it is about your own beliefs, operating below your own personal radar, that are affecting your bottom line.
Entitlement
Let’s start with Entitlement. With the recent budget debacle in Washington, ongoing threat of sequestration and debate of healthcare reform, you can’t go five minutes without hearing the term “entitlement.” It‘s an interesting word to use as a noun — as much for its vagueness as its ambiguity. Its very definition lies in conflict. Merriam Webster defines entitlement as 1. a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract. 2. a belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges. It conveniently holds a different meaning depending on which side of the coin you see yourself.
The hot button for me is the lack of clarity when it comes to the work we do. Entitlement cuts both ways. Often, on the part of senior executives, it is in reference to Millennials or employees in general feeling “entitled” to (fill in the blank). Interestingly, senior executives (or anyone else for that matter) seldom see this behavior in themselves. Herein lies the crux of the matter when it comes to entitlement … Belief.
Belief
Our belief lies in our vision of reality — based largely on one’s experiences and interpretations. I was recently told a story in which a very senior executive of a recently merged company requested help filling out some open enrollment paperwork. He was shocked to find out that under the merger he had only two weeks vacation unless he purchased more time. The employee explained that this was the new policy resulting from the merger. The executive’s incredulous response was, “Yes, but I didn’t think it was for people at my level!” By definition we BELIEVE we are deserving. The implications are as important as what they convey.
Your beliefs speak volumes about how you see the world. But a funny thing about belief … someone looking at the same set of facts and circumstances could walk away believing something entirely different. This disconnect, in and of itself, isn’t why this is a topic of importance for me. It is the lack of appreciation for the message our beliefs convey — a lack of awareness, or caring, that others could see the world so very differently than ourselves.
Perspective
For instance, let’s look at perspective in this scenario. You could draw any number of conclusions from this exchange, depending on your own experiences. One might agree that, after working for a number of years and reaching a certain level of achievement, a senior executive is deserving of more vacation time. Equally, the hard-working employee, having significant tenure as well, could see this simply as arrogance on the part of the executive. Why should he get preferential treatment? Similar points of view could be drawn in regard to a senior executive not knowing the details of the benefit changes due to the merger he helped orchestrate.
This is the other important thing to remember about beliefs: context matters. It matters a lot. For example, I could tell you that the request for help filling out these forms came within hours of the end of the day of the open-enrollment deadline. The employee whose help was requested had seen their position eliminated due to the merger and their long-term fate was unknown. How do these additional details shape your interpretation and change your own perspective?
The mark of great leadership is a leader who carefully listens to and considers the perspective of each person on the team — someone whom people want to follow. When initiating a new strategy, these leaders take the time to build urgency and get buy-in from each individual affected in a way that resonates from their point of view. Once everyone is on the same page, aligned and moving in the right direction, people begin to realize hidden beliefs that they have built up over time. Some beliefs — like ‘the accounting department is difficult to work with’, or that ‘the relationship with a particular business partner is tenuous’ — when left unaddressed, have the potential to slow or stop the execution and implementation of the best of strategies. Through increased dialog, providing context, challenging assumptions, asking questions and most importantly, listening — interpretation and belief are replaced by mutual understanding and engagement.
Want to get more from your team? Start with a little perspective shift. Consider carefully how you come across to those around you. Consider their perspective. Stand, walk, and run in their shoes for a moment. If you look closely enough, you might just realize you are in a Scrooge/Cratchit dynamic with one or more of your employees. If you aren’t paying attention, you might be a Scrooge and find out the hard way.
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Pat Cormier is an engagement leader at Kotter International, a firm that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations. Follow Kotter International on Twitter @KotterIntl, on Facebook, or on LinkedIn. Sign up for the Kotter International Newsletter.