I recently listened to an interview Tim Ferriss did with Doug McMillon, CEO of Wal Mart. Here’s a guy who is head of the Fortune number 1 company with over 2 million employees, $500 billion in revenue, etc. Wal Mart is bigger than many countries. What struck me about the interview was how Mr. McMillon showed up. Braggart? Nope. The Best? No way. Super Type-A turd? Not even. Instead, he showed up as a warm, gracious, and open individual. What a breath of fresh air. There is no shortage of leaders who have aggressively stuffed their title into their chests in an effort to be seen as superheroes. We don’t need superhero leaders at work. Instead, the future organization will be looking for leaders who can really bring the superhero out in each of the people they lead. The future organization will need leaders who have the audacity to admit mistakes, learn from them, share their learnings, and move forward. The future organization will need people who show up with warmth, graciousness, and openness. Let’s be the change!
With your teams, don’t get out of the way, do this instead
"Get out of the way!" I often hear some version of this sentiment when talking about building a culture to incentivize high performance teams. "You have to find the right people, equip them, and then get out of the way." People who talk about getting out of the way...