How to Demoralise Your Team 2 – Hoard Information
Imagine a trip into the future……The Doctor has referred you to an unusual Neuro-Surgeon who can show you where information is stored in your brain.
The screen in front of you shows areas of information by density – blue for small amounts and red for large hoards of information.
She taps the screen revealing a large density of information. Topic labels pop up when she double taps the screen.
“Oh no!” you think that is all the work information I have been keeping to myself that I should have shared with my team.
Your explanation to the surgeon seems plausible to you. However it is less acceptable to your team members who sit in the audience watching a magnified version of the same screen.
“If she had told me that it would have saved weeks of wasted work!” says one of your team. You defend yourself by saying’ “I didn’t think you needed to know that information, it was sensitive”.
Ah the “need to know” syndrome observes the Neuro-Surgeon.
As the team begin to gather courage they identify so many other pieces of information they can see that you never shared with them.
Your explanations follow: they were not senior enough to know, it might have upset them, it was sensitive, you liked to control the flow of information to enhance your position as team leader, it made you feel needed and powerful.
It all sounds rather lame, you have to admit. The result is you create a passive-reactive team, who dumbly await for the morsels you drop from your leadership table. Hardly inspiring leadership.
What hoard would the specialist find in your brain this week?
My request of you would be – To empower others, share more and communicate more clearly.
Warm regards Jonathan