Page 63 - Fearless Leadership

50 FEARLESS LEADERSHIP

The biggest challenge you face is that when the ledger is imbalanced
with broken commitments, people distrust all your commitments.
Without the honor of your word, others protect themselves from your
undependable behavior.
Your word matters; it is better to make fewer commitments and keep
them than to make many commitments and break them. (In Chapter 7,
we discuss how to honor and fulfill commitments and revoke them
responsibly.)

Blind Spot 7: Conspiring Against Others
Conspiring against others runs rampant in most organizations via rumors,
gossip, and watercooler conversations. People talk negatively about cowork-
ers and diminish their credibility by casting doubt and suspicion and then
attempt to get others to agree with them.
Sometimes these conspiracies are behind people’s backs, and other
times they are open warfare. For example, a conspiracy against a person
can be demonstrated in meetings by nonverbal behaviors. To discredit the
speaker, others may ignore the presentation, work on their computers,
check cell phone messages, or just check out and not listen. Any nonver-
bal demonstration of disinterest, disagreement, or disapproval, whether
intentional or unintentional, is a conspiracy against others.
Silent conspirators are deadly conspirators. The most common form of
conspiring is by saying nothing at all. When you listen to others but do
not correct an erroneous assumption or do not take a stand for a person,
you are sanctioning their comments. Underground conversations and con-
spiracies contaminate an entire organization. They build internal barriers
to partnership and collaboration.

Symptoms of Conspiring Against Others

• Speaking negatively about people or their ideas
• Discrediting and discounting others
• Silently agreeing with a negative point of view by not speaking up
• Displaying nonverbal cues of disapproval or disinterest
• Not talking directly to the appropriate person