Recently I had the opportunity to welcome the founder of the Arbinger Institute, Dr C Terry Warner, on his first visit to Thailand and Southeast Asia. I’ve learned the many valuable leadership lessons from this man who has spent almost 60 years of his life studying and sharing insights on psychology, philosophy and organisational leadership, and I’d like to share one story with you.
“As far as I am concerned, I am the problem.” This was the statement Dr Warner made in 1979 when he set out to help a colleague from Yale turn around an American steel manufacturer that was facing organisational chaos. Thirty-seven years later, he brought the same principle to Thailand during this visit.
Over the course of eight days, he had the opportunity to share his experience, wisdom and insight with many executives. The one consistent theme was change on multiple levels, as change within one’s self leads to change within teams; change within teams leads to change within organisations. And this change all occurs when we realise that “As far as I am concerned, I am the problem”.
You might think that sounds like the statement of blame; I’d say it is the exact opposite as the statement gives us chance to understand that we are in control of our own thoughts, actions, and outcomes that inevitably have an impact on others. As a result, when we identify that we can be the problem and see that we may be causing the problem to occur in others, we actually take the first step toward correction.
In other words, normally when things turn out wrong, people are likely to point fingers, find fault or blame others, and this often happens unknowingly. In the world of leadership this can lead to trouble.
Generally speaking, it’s hard for leaders to admit their mistakes or that they are the cause of the problem, for fear of losing face and being perceived as weak; thus, they seek to control everything in order to lead their organisations. This is, in fact, a terrible fallacy as it demoralises the workforce and says to them in effect: “I am doing the thinking, you are released from thinking. I am responsible, you don’t have to.”
The reaction to such action is universally affirmed by the workforce, which is happy to have somebody else take responsibility and blame if things go wrong. It is induced by the leadership and the mindset of the leader. Hence, they become focused on the wrong things; they don’t care for the work itself. They are working to avoid criticism, or for an irrelevant reward, and they wait to do what they’re told, which is a symptom of a great disease. Ultimately, the leaders themselves end up causing the big problem they were attempting to fix.
Owners, CEOs and top leaders are those who set the tone for how work gets done and what results are achieved, so when they take responsibility away from others, they don’t allow them to develop, perform or succeed. Rather, they do the opposite: they isolate people and remove the initiative to be creative and accountable members of humanity.
Simply put, when leaders are expected to be the talent makers, they become the talent breakers instead when they practise inward leadership. Hence, they are the reason why initiative is lacking, collaboration is scarce and companies are not thriving.
Organisations everywhere are missing opportunities because their leaders and their people are not looking “outward”. Do you want to be one of those on that list? Or would you rather get out of the box by shifting your own mindset outward as a leader to truly unleash the talent of those you lead, change results and create sustainability?
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Arinya Talerngsri is Group Managing Director at APMGroup, Thailand's leading Organisation and People Development Consultancy. She can be reached by e-mail at arinya_t@apm.co.th or https://www.linkedin.com/pub/arinya-talerngsri/a/81a/53b
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