Leaders don’t want to waste resources. They want to know the organization has done everything possible to ensure success and done everything possible to discover concealed opportunities. Notice the focus on the organization, almost forgetting about the people the organization serves. Originally published as a JohnnyHolland post, Bosses Seek Confidence and Avoid Risks, suggests taking a minute to see from the viewpoint of your boss.
Bosses Seek Confidence and Avoid Risks
For the most part, leaders are intent on reducing the risk that an offering might not be successful enough to advance your organization. Leaders want to see how well an idea works before investing time and money developing it. Leaders don’t want to waste resources. They want to feel confident. They want their investors to feel confident, and their employees to feel confident. They want to know the organization has done everything possible to ensure success and done everything possible to discover concealed opportunities.
Notice the focus on the organization, almost forgetting about the people the organization serves.
Leaders are all about making the organization successful. Organizations, in turn, are all about making their customers successful. Or that’s how it’s supposed to be. Frequently leaders seed the organization with organization-focused goals, and the people you are trying to help become secondary.
Notice, too, that fear of failure and desire for confidence are emotions. The leaders I know would be unlikely to say, “I guide this organization based on emotion.” Instead, most leaders focus on knowledge that will create a feeling of confidence, and frequently this gets defined as statistics, numbers, graphs, and projections.
Don’t fight this. Empathize and turn your insights into valuable material for him or her.
