Today, during a longer one-on-one session with one of my team members, we reflected on all the amazing people coming through our doors at Singularity University – may they be our faculty, staff or participants. It made me remember a mantra my first boss kept mentioning in meetings:
“I just want to be right. I do not care if the right answer comes from me.”
Taking this principle a step further, he also taught me to seek out the smartest people challenging my assumptions – as it is all too easy to fall in love with one’s view of the world.
Getting to the best possible outcome requires the ego to take a backseat and the leader to seek out the right answer. Sadly we are all too often wrapped up in a story we are telling ourselves about how we, as the leader, need to have the answers. Nothing could be further from the truth – leaders need to be right, have the conviction to follow the determined path and bring their people along.
Being right means listening to other people and have their insights challenge your assumptions.
P.S. Over the last couple of days I started putting together a set of resources for an “Exponential Break Out Session.” Check it out here and bookmark it, as I will make regular updates to the page.