A Leadership Mandate: Turn Down the Volume!

During the summer of 2013, I purchased a new car – my first convertible! After owning 5 Buick sedans, I decided to change my pattern and got a RED Mustang convertible. What fun it is!

During the remainder of the summer and throughout the fall, I really loved driving the mountain roads with the wind in my hair. I loved playing jazz on the radio on iTunes Radio. Love it! It’s while listening to the radio that I made a discovery…when I came off the highway, the radio adjusted the volume down since the ambient noise went down – Wow! This is really nice. I can slow down and not have the radio blaring.

This inspired me to think about some of the leaders I know…

How many times have you worked with or for someone who doesn’t know when to turn down the volume? Turning down the volume in many cases is awareness of what’s going on around you. If you are the leader and you are always transmitting…stop. Sometimes, it’s good to receive. Many times I have experienced leaders selling their services or a project, or even equity in a great company. They continue to talk until the answer is no or until the person “listening” wears out and gives up.

A leader is a person of influence. Here are some ways that not turning down the volume, so to speak, creates a negative reaction:

1. Talking over others: This is a sign of anxiety. The leader who is not willing to receive comments from others cuts themselves off from getting needed input in order to make good leadership decisions and developing relationships which are so crucial to leadership. This devalues others and dampens their spirit. This shows that the leader has low self-esteem and is afraid of hearing something that they might not want to hear, making them feel less worthy.
2. Interrupting when others are talking: Another sign of anxiety. This is also an autocratic leadership trait where the leader expects to have all the answers and sees input from others as poor leadership. This is a power play.
3. Continuing to deliver data when people are not understanding it: Failing to check for understanding is not effective. The overcompensation for thinking that others don’t understand is to continue to deliver information. Delivering more information in many cases confuses listeners and overwhelms them, so they might not remember anything.
4. Giving advice when it’s not welcomed or desired: The autocratic leader assumes the authority role, the role of BOSS. They use command language like, “you have to understand,” or “here’s what you need to do,” or other words that command the other person to do what the leader prescribes. It’s better to ask if the other person is open to your input first, and then ask if they have considered some options. Then suggest some to consider.
5. Giving all the answers and strategy: The effective leader asks good questions and allows the listener to formulate good answers. This provides an opportunity to coach a team member or employee. It does, however, also allow them to function at a higher level as a leader on the team. If the leader provides all the action items to accomplish the goal, then there is no place for the team member or employee to develop strategy that they believe in and that they own. Providing all the answers is a form of over-functioning. The reciprocity is that others under-function. Nobody is happy.