Page 88 - Appreciative Leadership

The Art of Illumination 61

critical and often personally demeaning comments. The result can be
devastating to employees’ confidence and willingness to take the risks

that result in innovation, integrity, and high performance.
Consider the story of Harris, a 30-something graduate of
Georgetown University, Stanford Business School, and Oxford. Just
weeks from being awarded his Ph.D., he accepted a position with

an international consulting firm on the promise of work that would
use his skills and continue to stimulate his growth and development.

Within the first month on the job, he was sent to a weeklong training
program on research methods. It was a program required of all new
hires—most of whom were just out of undergraduate college. When
Harris would make comments or ask challenging questions, he oft en
felt belittled by the trainer. Wondering if this program was appropri-
ate, he approached his supervisor, only to be told that he was being
“egotistical and grandiose.” After three months of continuous criti-

cism, he left the firm and entered counseling, seeking to understand

what he had done wrong. The manager’s criticism lost the consulting
firm a valuable resource and reinforced a supervisory style of critique

bordering on abuse. In addition, it led a bright young man into a
downward spiral of self-doubt rather than into an upward spiral of
learning and contribution.
Illumination—seeing and valuing peoples’ ideas, skills, and aspi-
rations—has a very different impact on people, as Susan’s story shows.

Another 30-something with a deep well of potential, and 10 years of
experience in domestic and international communication strategy with
an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School, Susan applied for a position
with an international nongovernmental organization (NGO). During
the interview she described her long-range desire to become an execu-

tive director of an international NGO. The hiring manager, who was the
current executive director of the NGO Susan was applying to, was an
attentive listener and heard Susan’s aspiration to diversify her experience.
Recognizing her natural abilities to manage people, projects, events, and

functions, and realizing that Susan would benefit by learning the devel-
opment function, she offered her a job as development manager. Th e

learning curve was steep, and yet in the first three months Susan hired