Monday, July 20, 2015

MANAGEMENT SPECIAL...................... Guru speak Liz Wiseman Rediscover the rookie in you

Guru speak Liz Wiseman Rediscover the rookie in you


Liz Wiseman is an author and founder of The Wiseman Group and a member of the Thinkers50, a list of the world's most influential management thinkers

Executive advisor and Thinkers50 member Liz Wiseman has a simple advice for senior people she advises: don the rookie hat. In her latest book, Rookie Smarts, Wiseman argues that corporate leaders have a lot to gain when they think like rookies. In an interview with Karen Christensen, Wiseman explains what the rookie mindset is all about and why it helps. Edited excerpts:
Talk a bit more about the lure of inexperience.
I refer to it as `being in a rookie state' ­ a mindset you can adopt a at any age: it's a way of approaching a task when you are new to something that is important and difficult.
In this newcomer state, we operate much like backpackers exploring a new terrain; we are both alert and in seeking mode, which I call `hunter-gatherer mode.' The value of the newcomer is that they have no ingrained ideas about how things work.When you ask a person with experience to do a job, they tend to bring their baggage to the table. In the rookie state, because our situational confidence is low, we're cautious. We stay connected to our stakeholders, seeking signals, and we don't veer away from them for very long. As a result, we tend to be very responsive.
In the rookie state, we move quickly, because we don't yet have any `points on the board', and we want to score a few. I call this way of working `firewalker mode', because it's similar to how one might walk across hot coals. This looks like the agile and lean methodologies that so many companies are trying to implement right now.
You have said that when there is so much to know, having the right question is more important than having a ready answer. Please explain.
I found this in both of my research projects over the last couple of years: the leaders who bring out the intelligence of their teams tend to think in terms of questions, not answers. Answers are static; but questions are dynamic; they open up possibilities, and the right question can focus the energy and intelligence of a team. Rookies are naturals at asking questions, because they don't have all that ingrained knowledge holding them back.
You have said that ironically, the most valuable rookie of all is the seasoned executive. Please explain.We found that the highest-performing rookies are experienced professionals at the executive level who come out of one domain and are put into a rookie assignment where they don't have all the answers. Sure, they bring along leadership skills, savvy, and an ability to work with people and communicate well--but they are thrown into unknown territory. This is where companies get the greatest value, because these leaders know enough to ask the right questions.
When the people in an organisation know that their leader needs their help, they tend to step up to find answers and to innovate.That's why the greatest value lies keeping our most experienced professionals and our most senior leaders in this hungry, unknown space. My fantasy scenarios is that we get to the point where corporate leaders can readily say, “I don't know the answer.“ Really powerful things happen when leaders at the top are allowed to show the chinks in their armour.
Last but not least, do millennials have natural rookie characteristics? And which demographic group is in trouble?
I do think millennials have a natural advantage in this environment, and it has to do with their impatience and their desire to contribute immediately. We need incumbent leaders to let go of the idea that new hires need to pay their dues before any big responsibility is given. Millennials are coming into the workforce wanting big responsibility immediately, and that attitude gives them a natural advantage in terms of rookie smarts. As companies smarten up to this, they will move beyond lamenting, `Oh, these millennials are so annoying; they come in, they want big jobs and then they leave after two years. Why should I invest in them?' Smart companies say, `You know what? These people probably are going to be moving on to something else in two years, so rather than lament that, let's encourage them to contribute from day one.' If you don't feed them a steady diet of challenges, they will move on and get their fix somewhere else. In terms of disadvantaged groups with respect to rookie smarts, I found some interesting points with respect to gender.Not surprisingly, our research showed that women don't necessarily like stepping out of their zone of competence into a zone of incompetence.
At the same time, women tend to have natural rookie smarts: the ability to ask questions, to mobilize, to collaborate ­ and a humility that allows someone to learn in a lot of different directions. They actually tend to do better on some of these things than men.So there is an interesting duality whereby women might not naturally embrace the rookie zone, but once they get there, they tend to be at their best.
Those who will be truly disadvantaged will be the highly successful--people whose experience has led to success, and then to hubris. Experience is not the enemy: it is the hubris that is often a by-product of experience that is our greatest enemy. CD
(Reprinted, with permission, from Rotman Management, the magazine of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Managment.
http:www.rotmanmagazine.ca)

CDET3JUL15

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