I was part of a leadership team last year with a new guy. A New York new guy. I am sure there are very many empathetic, sympathetic, active listening New York guys but he wasn’t one. He was cocksure, quick talking, out-loud processing, opinionated, and full of shit. Talked a good line but an absolute out and out, in your face, liar. The team had two strong women. Effective, thoughtful, reflective, relationship building, process oriented, result focused. This one new guy shut down the team. Like hitting the squelch button on an old CB radio. Cut out the background noise and suddenly meetings were filed with silences and sideways looks. It was horrendous to see all that potential become deathly quiet. We lost a year. I fired his ass and I am sure he is out there talking about lack of leadership and follow-through and support. Some guys, the perpetually new guys, who bolster egos with fast talk, the ones who know the lingo but can’t git-r-done. The ones who use others to prop themselves up without realizing they are the worst kind of dependents, the clingy, parasitic kind of choking vines.
Dear me I have a regular mescla of metaphors going here. Time to move on.
Great post. If we structure for silence by letting dominate and domineering voices rule, we get short-sighted and limited input and the results will show this. Oh no, I am about to go down Poligon Alley, don’t want to do that!
Cheers, b
