Page 162 - Fearless Leadership

Standing for the Success of Each Other 149

bers understand that their personal success is inextricably tied to the team’s
success. They know one another’s blind spots intimately so they can
quickly spot automatic behavior and transform it into extraordinary behav-
ior that forwards the action.

The Stand of Committed Partners
We commit to the success of one another and we take 100% account-
ability for business results and our impact on people.

Committed partners know that day by day they must overcome the dom-
inant automatic behavior of going it alone, which is corroborated by the lead-
ership myth “I should be self-sufficient and able to handle anything.” Myths
have power. Although they have no basis in fact, their power comes from a
body of traditional beliefs that accumulate over time. Like the air you
breathe, myths are transparent and appear to be “the way things are.” These
myths become part of your belief system and determine how you speak and
act. You don’t consciously choose to believe myths; instead, you inherit
them. They are foisted on you from the unspoken culture of leadership.
It’s easy to discount a myth as some historical superstition that has no
modern-day relevance, but in our work with leaders we discover the full
extent of their grip. As we discussed earlier, although you ask for what you
want, you create what you believe: your underlying assumptions and
beliefs form the core of how you lead and interact with others.
This explains why committed partners are well schooled in automatic
behaviors—theirs and others. They want their hands on the mechanism
that allows them to anticipate problems, steer clear of breakdowns, and
recover quickly when they occur. They share a set of agreements and skills
for attacking the real issues.
Here is the shift that is needed in thinking: committed partners meas-
ure their success and effectiveness by what others say, not by their own self-
assessment. This means that in a committed partnership, your point of view
is irrelevant; the only valid measure of your impact on people is what oth-
ers say. When there is a disconnect between how you think you have
impacted others and what others tell you, throw your opinion out.
Committed partners accept 100% accountability in all matters. This
means keeping your attention on what you can change, not on what oth-