Hubris P1

I cut someone short during a meeting recently . It was the second time I was doing it. I have utmost respect for this individual. I also like to think I don’t do it to others, but did it to him twice in 3 meetings because I was eager to get the discussion moving forward and not sideways.

See, I had a legit rational or I thought I did for interjection. This particular individual likes to take convos back to ground zero and build up again. So he repeats what we’ve heard before. It’s not something I am used to especially since we have just little time to reach concrete steps. I found this draining and frustrating.

However our post-incident conversation today made me realize a blind spot in my approach — there’s actually a strategic rationale behind taking things to ground zero as he made me realize. Sometimes you get people to commit to actions without them believing or really owning the action. Taking the time to go back to basics gives you an opportunity to clarify genuine alignment.

I was humbled. Most leaders miss this. As a result, we motivate less and your people do not own their responsibilities — and the result is suboptimal work or lack of resilience from your team when your proposed strategies don’t work instantly or hit the tiniest bump.

Which brings me to the bigger challenge: hubris — the wicked cousin of being good/successful at some endeavor who leads you to think you know it all and can do no wrong. It’s almost impossible to be an adventurer without some outlandish level of confidence; but then, but then… I’ve learnt to practice humility of opinion, soak in others perspectives even if I’m doing it to learn and add to my own repertoire. And it works. I loved the fact that me and my guy were able to discuss our communication differences and our collaboration has received a renewed boost.