The Obvious Leader
Effective leaders recognize the obvious, question how it appears, and reinforce its value
New Years can bring out two kinds of thinking: “out with the old, in with the new” (#NewYearNewMe) or “same old, same old” (#NewYearSameMe). Following A Surprising, Inspiring, Mind-Blowing Kinda Year, I am reflecting on what makes my work so enjoyable. While I expect to learn and apply new skills in 2022 (#NewYearNewFrameworks), I also want to recognize and deepen what has served me well to this point (#NewYearTrustedTools).
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the way obvious information is undervalued. Reflecting on what we do at Friday, I see how my team instinctively unpacks information that is obvious and necessary for clients. How leaders use this information has shown me the power of what’s-right-in-front-of-you to move an organization forward. Effective leaders recognize, question, and reinforce the obvious. In striving to become a better leader and strategist, I came up with a few takeaways that keep me connected to what’s in plain sight.
Effective leaders understand that what is obvious to some may not be obvious to everyone
As a leader, navigating strategic decisions can be daunting. Moving forward with assumptions based on what you think others know can leave you vulnerable to ineffective decision making. Without establishing and communicating what is “obvious”, you allow bias to limit options. Proceeding with what is only obvious to you can discourage input from team members. It can also prevent you from seeing other ideas that are right under your nose. Effective leaders must share what is obvious to them and invite what is obvious to others, creating space to align around what is obvious to “us.”
During a recent strategic planning engagement with a school founder and their team, the leader was reluctant to share their assumptions. They seemed to believe that what was obvious to them should be obvious to everyone else. By insulating their thinking from others, they were preventing the team from starting from the same set of information, ideas, and assumptions. The result was that everyone on the team was working with a different view of the challenge and its root causes.
Seeing problems differently is a good thing, but the more information we have about a problem — the more we share what is obvious to us and perhaps less obvious to others — the better our understanding of what we’re up against. In this particular case, the leader was moving an initiative forward with the false assumption that everyone was on the same page. This limited the team’s ability to consider truly innovative solutions rooted in a common understanding of the problem.
Effective leaders take time to state the obvious. They show their thinking, and invite others to do the same. Teams often have a shared information bias — where they focus on what they assume everyone on the team knows. By building a habit of stating the obvious, we create more nuanced perspectives to begin the process of developing solutions and strategies.
Effective leaders revisit the obvious to keep teams aligned
The obvious plays an important role in keeping teams on the same page. Let’s be honest: in the scramble of the day-to-day, the obvious reasons for doing what we’re doing can fall by the wayside. That’s why we recommend our clients frequently refer to their core goals and priorities when making decisions. Effective leaders don’t just bring together knowledge at the beginning; they regularly turn to it.
This starts at the beginning of the process. When my team shares insights from organizational assessments, we look for signs that reassure us we’re uncovering the obvious. Clients will tell us, “We know a lot of this”, “This looks right”, or “I’m glad this came up”, confirming we’ve established an appropriate baseline of information to build off of. It is affirming for clients to see the obvious stated on paper. This can give leaders a chance to reflect on what crucial, yet unacknowledged information needs to be kept at the forefront of planning. Using a shared understanding of the obvious, effective leaders can launch into exploring strategies grounded in undeniable truths about their organization.
By the end of the process, teams are often on a mountaintop. There is clarity, alignment, and inspiration — a bold new strategy that can only advance our mission. But then the work starts. Strategies become tactics which become calls and meetings and internal todos. The clear, obvious vision for the future gets lost in the haze of making that vision a reality. What was once so clear — so obvious — is a vague forest masked by an ocean of trees. In these moments, effective leaders return to the obvious. They constantly remind their team of the vision. They connect the day to day work to the goals they developed as a team. They make the hard-to-see connection between today and tomorrow obvious in order to create alignment and motivation across the team.
Good leaders believe the obvious provides authenticity
We as leaders are sometimes reluctant to acknowledge what’s in front of us, what we’ve grown accustomed to, and what may be an accepted truth we’ve taken for granted. A lasting benefit of seeking the obvious is that it brings you back to your current reality and helps you decide where to go from here. It allows you to act (more) authentically with greater insight into who you are and what you stand for. Stating the obvious can help others recognize something that they had forgotten.
The process of rediscovering the obvious may lead you to ask more questions about how you approach challenges or inflection points. You may begin asking, “When is this obvious?” and, “When is this not?” As an effective leader, I invite you to question the obvious, challenge it, and rethink how it shows up in everyday activities. This year, I will continue to share the obvious, bring greater authenticity to my work, and make sure others have the information they need to make smart(er) decisions.
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