Hidden Potential by Adam Grant
Chapters 7-9: Systems of Opportunity
To join us live for the Non-Boring Leadership book club, join the Superabound Collective here.
Watch the replay here (the full version is available on LinkedIn here; I pressed record after the first 10 minutes):
Main points:
-
Teams are only really fun when you're functioning at a high level, making things happen, growing, with everyone feeling fulfilled and in the right place. This is a tall order, and requires skillful leadership to accomplish.
-
When helping people grow (students, team members, etc.), the most important question to ask is: "What are my underlying assumptions?" The one that struck me from this chapter is that the tradeoff between doing well and being well is a false choice.
-
To unlock collective intelligence in teams, you need to acknowledge that leadership is a prosocial skill, and does not flow from excellent past job performance or from being extraverted.
-
How good are you at creating space for ideas to be heard and everyone to flourish? This skill is especially important when innovation and human connection is required from your team, not just performance of rote activities. You need to create a learning and performance culture that wins together, not a following culture.
-
To find diamonds in the rough, measure for trajectory, not track record. Find ways to measure someone's coachability, desire, passion. These are the skills that will enable them to thrive in an environment of ambiguity and autonomy. What have they overcome to be where they are? What is their vision, and how does it align with the vision of your company or team? Those are as valuable as someone's performance in past roles.
If you want support to grow as a leader of your business or lean team, Grow Smooth will help you do just that.
