The Magic Of Candor And The Self-Aware Nonprofit Organization
Happy Friday!
As a college student, I managed a restaurant in Louisiana. One day, I received complaints from staff about another manager who rested his top lip on the microphone while calling orders to the kitchen.
When I approached him (discreetly), he denied it quite vehemently. The next day I dripped a bit of hot sauce on the top of the microphone. He believed us after that, and he never lipped the microphone again.
As a young manager, my two takeaways from that experience were:
This is a smart guy. How could he not realize he was doing that?
In what ways am I putting my proverbial lip on the microphone?
Thus began my lifelong quest for self-awareness (and more mature management techniques).
If you’re reading this, you’re probably involved in helping organizations change the world. Effective change demands self-awareness, both at the individual level and at the organizational level.
If we’re not aware that our lip is on the microphone, we’re not going to change. An organization’s ability to change is proportional to its level of self-awareness.
But if it’s so hard to achieve as an individual, how in the world can we build a self-aware organization?
Here is one tip for you that I found helpful when I was a nonprofit leader. Ask your partners and stakeholders the following question about your organization:
“What do you wish we knew that we might not know?”
Then be quiet and listen. In my experience, this question unlocks much more candor than asking for feedback in a more general way (e.g. “How are we doing?” or “Is there anything we can do to serve you better?”).
Good luck on your quest for self-awareness!
Drew
PS: That’s definitely not the only time I used hot sauce as a management tool. Maybe I’ll tell the other story in a future email. Stay spicy!
