Page 155 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

THE WHY OF WORK

facility. During the two days the local leader asked countless
questions about the executive’s background, experience, and
suggestions for improvement. The executive, intent on shar-
ing his wisdom and making recommendations, never asked a
single reciprocating question about the local leader’s percep-
tions or experience. At dinner on the last evening the local
team shared some of its local innovations and awards from
the community for its successes with plant operations. The
corporate leader was surprised to learn what the local leader
had done but did not pursue trying to learn about these local
innovations. At the end of the trip the executive returned
to headquarters satisfied that he had shared what he knew.
But the local innovations were not brought into the rest of
the system, and the work environment of the local team was
affected more negatively than positively by the visit.
Leaders who listen and learn create an environment where
ideas can be surfaced, debated, and tried. One executive is
known for the yellow legal pad that he carries everywhere, to
note not problems but insights from conversations in which
he is always inquisitive and trying to learn. Another leader
followed the flow of her product into her customer’s hands,
starting in her customer’s purchasing department and ask-
ing why purchasing had chosen her product over others and
how they could improve . . . then going to the receiving dock
to determine whether her product had been shipped to the
customer in ways that made it easy to work with . . . then
visiting the assembly area to see how her product fit into the
customer’s product . . . then following up with visits to sales,
marketing, and service, each time learning how her product
was accessed and used by the customer. When the leader
returned to her organization, she met with each group of
employees to share with them the customer’s comments,

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