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Brain Circuits
Don’t just do something – sit there!
Leaders are conditioned to leap into action to meet challenges. But what if remaining calm and simply listening is what the people around you need in such moments?
Negative capability
Inaction is often perceived as indecision or weakness in leaders. But nearly 200 years ago the English poet John Keats coined the term ‘negative capability’ – the capacity to embrace ambiguity, confusion, doubt, and mystery without the ‘irritable’ need to reach logical conclusions. For Keats, this is where creativity and innovation begin.
Psychoanalysts, psychologists, executive coaches, and others have incorporated this idea into their practice because it allows them to be totally receptive to whatever the client or executive brings on a given day and to offer a ‘container’ for their emotional experience.
Give people the space to express what might be going on for them that could be affecting their performance.
Reflective inaction
Of course, there are plenty of times for action – for reviewing what went right or wrong and drawing lessons, or looking ahead to see what path to follow. But there is also a time for ‘reflective inaction’: staying in the present, listening intently, and resisting that natural but often unhelpful leadership impulse to provide immediate solutions.
Typically, however, managers enter the conversation flooded with what British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion identified as memory and desire – memory of what has (or hasn’t) been achieved by their direct report, usually in direct relation to a set of agreed objectives, and desire to give feedback that will return them to the right path. It’s about judgement and action, and it makes people in the workforce understandably nervous.
How to lead with stillness
Managers can fall prey to the ‘myth of rationality’ when steering a team through a change process. This is the tendency to believe that all parties are rational and can appreciate the need for change, even if it affects them negatively. Any resistance is a form of drag that can be overcome through persuasion and persistence – but this misses the emotional undertow of change efforts. Change inevitably causes anxiety: people worry about job security, status, and fitness for new roles. This anxiety can lead to unhelpful behaviors, including lack of trust in leadership and disengagement. The following tips can help manage the anxiety:
- Give people the space to express what might be going on for them that could be affecting their performance.
- Listen attentively and empathetically without memory or desire.
- Focus on asking probing (but not challenging) questions that allow people to work out why something is not working for themselves.
- Instead of mandating a ‘top-down’ imperative, devise a better way forward together.
- Don’t ignore the need to listen for fear it will slow the change process: a temporary slowdown often improves the long-term prospects for success.
Key takeaway
Leading a change process requires negative capability – working in the unknown, giving up control, and tolerating ambiguity and uncertainty. This can help others manage their anxiety and help you find solutions together.
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