Blind man’s bluff: when leaders can’t see the world clearly
We are delighted to share our recent contribution to the FT Working It newsletter. We discuss with Isabel Berwick how senior leaders must recognise the power dynamics that accompany their role and ensure they receive independent challenge and feedback in the C-suite.
I wasn’t sure whether to make reference to Blind man’s bluff (or buff - really?). The game might have been cancelled since, erm, the 70s, when I last played. But it remains a good metaphor for the way that leaders can sometimes be at the centre of a crowd (in this case, their boards and senior teams) and yet not be able to see what’s really going on.
Kate Lye, founder of the Savoir Group, appeared in one of our Working It films (on CEO succession planning). She works with senior leaders at Goldman Sachs and other big companies to keep them performing at their best. So I asked her to outline the common issues and themes she sees among the people at the top of organisations.
Kate says that business leaders are often changed by the job and the power that comes with it - without realising it’s happening. “Being in that rareified air changes how you see the world, and how you see yourself.”
She gives an example of a newly-recruited CEO who was also well-known to be a keen cyclist. Kate asked him how his team were doing: “He said, ‘you know, amazingly, all the team are really into cycling as well, and we all compare data’. And I looked at him and he looked at me - and he said ‘they are playing me, aren’t they?’”
As Kate points out, the system in corporate life is set up so people will always try to play it to their advantage - you can’t blame anyone for trying. In this instance, she told him: “‘[The team] are trying to influence you, they are trying to curry favour, they want to be in your inner circle, and if you are going to speak to them about your [cycling] times, you’ll speak to them about other stuff; it’s currency.
How to get past this problem? Partly, by protecting yourself. Kate cautions that “you just can't show that much of yourself. Because it would be used against you.” (So maybe keep your cycling data private.) More widely, she suggests, “you need people around you who see the world differently and have had other experiences. Not that you have to agree with them, you just have to supplement and refine your own thinking. You cannot do that by yourself. You are just a little echo chamber or, with your executive team, a bigger echo chamber.”
And finally, if you are in any kind of leadership position, Kate suggests you force yourself to have “really high quality challenge” from people who are unafraid to speak to you (this could be a coach, mentor, or a brave peer) to stop you falling into the trap of believing that what you can see is the whole truth of your organisation.