Lately I have been looking to discover new content to read or watch on my iPad. I came across an old TV series I always enjoyed watching .... The West Wing. It was on TV for 7 seasons .... a behind the scenes story of the inner workings of the White House.
I enjoyed watching the West Wing for many reasons. Primarily from a leadership perspective. Each week the President and his staff faced different issues. It was every interesting to watch how they addressed those issues......some they handled well and some not so well.
Tough accountable decisions had to be made......The President and his staff needed to put team 1st ... not ego.....it was all about what the President's agenda was......not any individual member of the staff. Healthy conflict and honest communication was critical to exploring and implementing the right decisions. Loyalty to each other and the President was expected and not often spoken about. People had to be open to another point of view and change their view on decisions that needed to be made or accept and support a decision they didn't agree with....quickly get over it and move on to the next one. Every member of the team cared about each other. They survived a very stressful environment because they had each other. As people left the staff, not only the right skills had to be replaced, but the person had to be the right fit for the rest of the team. The rest of the team had to accept them quickly so the President's agendas were always being addressed.
As I watched this TV series for 7 years when it originally aired, it helped me learn many things about the different facets of successful leadership, teambuilding and business building. As I watch it years later again on my iPad, it still has many great lessons and reminders.
An episode I watched recently was framed around President Bartlett (President of the United States in the TV series) along with 2 former Presidents traveling on Air Force One to attend a funeral of a foreign leader. During the flight the President was dealing with an emergency in another part of the world and was in dialogue back and forth with the former Presidents throughout the episode discussing alternatives and their views. The point I want to make through all this is to fast forward to the end of the episode where one of the former Presidents makes the comment that it
"is a shame that it takes getting to the end of eight years in office before we begin to really know the questions we need to be asking when facing the issues that come to any President."
This comment is really a mouthful .... getting to the point where a leader can ask all the right questions rather than have all the answers. As we enter organizations and rise through promotions that come our way we are trained to have the right answers and become very good at having those answers when they are needed. We become experts with all the answers.
The puzzling thing becomes that to make the transition to senior leadership in any business, we have to get really good at knowing what we don't know...... and asking the right questions! The really good senior leaders ask the insightful questions .... are comfortable in their own skin when not knowing things and are open to letting their own teams pursue the answers.
Take the time today to ask some really good questions of your staff. Fight the urge to answer them yourself. Sit back and watch what happens.
Also, measure the advisors you surround yourself with....they should be asking the right questions.....not just providing you with answers!
