“It happens naturally when a business is thriving and growing. Sometimes systems are not intentionally put in place to foster cultural infrastructure, which breeds HEALTHY conflict and solutions for this conflict.”
Everyone around you agrees with you.
And that is not a good thing.
You have wonderful allies and supporters. Your tolerance for negativity low and it has been amazing for your personal life. You have good friends and people around you who care about you.
BUT…
Something just doesn’t feel right in your company. Things are off because there are some people leaving without telling you exactly why.
Good people are being recruited out and it does not make sense because everything seems fine.
You may not realize that you have built a culture where your thinking is not challenged. It was not on purpose. It happens naturally when a business is thriving and growing. Sometimes systems are not intentionally put in place to foster cultural infrastructure, which breeds HEALTHY conflict and solutions for this conflict.
Start with a Challenge of Yourself
Sometimes you are wondering what might be happening and know there is something just not quite right. You may be able to ask someone else, but start with yourself.
This is not to encourage self-doubt, but to open your mind to other possibilities. Leaders are learners and learning to challenge your own thinking is a high-level skill.
Three Ways to Start Challenging Your Thinking
- Psychology Today states, “The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This tends to occur because a lack of self-awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills.” In organizations where people are quitting their jobs, exhibiting toxic behavior, and using shame and blame, the Dunning-Kruger effect could be in play. This would be a good time to contemplate if you have overestimated your skills somewhere. If so, it is never shameful to get support in these areas. Look for the areas of your business that seem to have them most struggle.
- Have you heard of Mental Models? Well this a great time for you to learn more. In a mental model activity, you challenge your thinking on paper. First, you think about a conversation you recently had with someone.
“The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This tends to occur because a lack of self-awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills.”
Then, you draw a line down the middle of the paper. Write the conversation you had on one side. Then write what you thought about the conversation
on the other side. Then challenge the assumptions you might make about a person on the other side. This is metacognition at it’s finest. You can
decide if maybe there was something you missed in the conversation. Maybe you should revisit the conversation with them? There is a tool at the
bottom of this page you can use to map a mental model.
3. Listen to what is NOT being said. Notice people’s behaviors and who they are aligned with. Does their alignment go with the organizational chart? Does
it seem like there is someone who people naturally defer to even without a title? This can be a good thing. This person might be the one to help
challenge your thinking. Start by asking them about their aspirations. Do they have a growth plan? Teach them the skills to communicate with you
in a healthy way.
You Got This
Overall, it is normal for a person to have many people who agree with them around. After all, you did hire people based on shared values with your company. But it is not good for innovation to keep it that way. People need to challenge your thinking in order for your business to grow and adapt.