And it changed the company’s leadership culture.  Just by using what they already had. Here’s how:

• Influence – these bright managers learned how to break the boundaries of linear thinking, how to go beyond process and forms, and how to connect with the intellectual capital in the room. They learned to understand the true extent of their influence on outcomes
• Listen and talk proportionately – we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Managers discovered that if you listen more than you talk, problems can be solved more quickly and more completely
• 1 + 1 = 3 – as soon as you acknowledge your limitations, readily take on board other people’s experience, and you use influence to tap into your peers’ capabilities, your intellectual bandwidth and your leadership capability increases exponentially
• Trust is at the heart of leadership – the essence of trust is humility and competence. Leaders who acknowledge this, build superior group integrity and a more effective leadership culture in their collective enterprise.

The best thing about that? This corporation realized that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

And then they did something about it.  They learned how to make the most of the talent in the room.

This belief that the answer is always in the room is also at the heart of our philosophy at Zanas MacKenzie.  And this drives our passion for Consulting Inside Out.

I reflected on that facilitation experience recently. And it made me think about some of the most fundamental, but enduring, leadership lessons I have learned over the past 20 years:

• The answer is always in the room – you know more about your business than any team of so-called experts flying in from nearby countries. Be aware of, and connect with, the talent you already have.  And if that’s hard to do on your own, get some help. Shine a light on it.
• Influence is not easy – if you think it is, try ordering someone else’s dog around. If we depend on doing things our way, and commanding and being obeyed, we are limiting our options.  And missing opportunity. Understanding how to learn and share with others takes time. Be patient, and let others help.
• Trust is fundamental – It’s about humility and competence. Have the humility to be able to embrace others’ contributions.  Have the self-awareness to know where your competence begins and ends.   Know your limits, and let others help you extend your range, and theirs
• Empathy – of course, seek to feel things the way your team does. More important than that, though, have some empathy for your real self.  Who you are, and not who you think you should be, as the boss. Give yourself a break. And let others help bridge the gap.

I can still remember, as a young leader, ambitious and so sure of myself, the favorite piece of advice I received.  It came as a challenge to me from our calm, wise CTO, a respected mentor and used to drama. It was in response to my noisy declaration about how I could drive the team to success: “Brute force and heroics are not scalable”, he said.  No matter how dedicated, or how energetic, or how motivated we are, there is only so much we can achieve alone.

Perhaps Robert Louis Stevenson puts it best: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”  The choice is yours. Either you think and grow linearly.  Or you look around at the talent you already have standing beside you. And you extend your influence and your reach through that.