Leadership Conversations: Challenging High Potential Managers to Become Great Leaders

CHAPTER 9

Don’t Let Them Assume They Know What You’re Thinking

Assumptions are the termites of relationships.

—HENRY WINKLER

People who work for leaders and managers who are open in their conversations about objectives, priorities, concerns, criteria, and time constraints are more likely to operate in alignment with each other. The absence of clarity about those factors leaves people guessing—and running an organization on guesswork is risky. Furthermore, leaders and managers are human, and they have good days and bad days. But their attitudes and moods—good or bad—are a tsunami that engulfs their domain. A buoyant, optimistic mood tends to improve performance; a surly, pessimistic outlook often has the opposite effect.

For example, one CEO was known ...