DO YOU REALISE HOW SCARY YOU ARE?
Most managers know they need to create an environment where people can speak up in order to hear innovative ideas and avoid scandals. Research from a new book ‘Speak Up: Say what needs to be said and hear what needs to be heard’ (Financial Times Publishing 2019), suggests that most managers assume they are approachable – but in fact they are ‘deaf ’ to the effect that their status and authority has on others. In this article its authors, Hult Professor Megan Reitz and her research partner John Higgins from Gameshift, share their findings, invite you to reflect on your ‘scariness’ and provide advice on how to enable others to speak up.
A CEO mutters “See? I knew they didn’t have anything to say!” as he comes off the stage at a large company meeting. He has just asked the audience “Do you have any questions?” and was met with silence. He reads this to mean a lack of initiative – something he’d been complaining about for quite some time. He’d called the meeting to prove his point.
He is utterly blind to the silencing effect that his power has on his colleagues; to how risky it feels for others to speak up to him. Consequently, he is oblivious to the ideas that he never gets to hear about and the
