Be Different or be dead

January 21, 2021

Why fantastic leadership skills can be made in ‘the bear pit’

Source: Pexels

Why fantastic leadership skills can be made in ‘the bear pit’.

Survival in The Bear Pit is a critical leadership skill; if you have the jam for it, this should be your happy place.

Amazing leaders have an uncanny ability to know what’s really going on in their organization. And one of the leadership skills they draw on from their toolkit is venturing into and surviving The Pit.

What’s ‘The Pit’?

It’s a people cluster where the leader invites people to provide their honest feedback and opinions on a variety of topics that matter to the leader. The Pit doesn’t have to be face-to-face meeting; it can be virtual and it works just as well.

The Pit consists of a group of individuals in the workplace who have a point of view on how things are going and are very willing to candidly share their feelings to the leader if asked.

The Pit is all about the leader subjecting themselves to the crowd in an effort to learn what will make things better for people. A leader who puts themselves at personal risk are endeared by all, and that’s what makes this skill so key in leadership development.

A bear pit session is managing by wandering around on steroids.

Venturing into The Pit is not for the faint of heart.

The Pit encounter is not a formal event, but a casual meeting between the leader and a group of up to 12 employees (larger meetings generally stifle the flow of conversation and the ability for everyone to be heard.

The leader enters The Pit solo; no accompanying entourage is allowed. He or she stands naked in the cluster to entertain their desire to want better things to do the organization’s business.

It’s a fundamental element of leadership by serving around where the leader seeks feedback on improvements required to increase organizational performance and make things easier for employees.

When the leader ventures into The Pit, it is a free-for-all, no-format session.

The Pit is an opportunity for people to tell it like it is to the leader without their immediate boss being in the room. When I started doing these sessions,

I had pushback from some of my direct reports who quite frankly were threatened by my being in front of their people without them being there as a filter. This spoke volumes about their worth as leaders. If they didn’t want their people to be able to speak freely to me, what did it say about how they were leading their team?

The type of issues I raised in The Pit for reaction, opinion and solutions included:

— What’s generally working in the organization and what’s not. What’s the number one thing people think i as the leader should be worrying about?

— How the business plan of the organization is being executed.

— How effective the leadership of the organization is at helping them do their jobs better.

— The barriers in the organization that prevent them from doing their jobs the way they want to.

— Customer service problems and opportunities to solve them and enhance customer experience.

— Ways to reduce costs without sacrificing service to customers.

— Information on what the competition is up to, and suggestions to counter their moves.

— The dumb rules in the organization that enrage customers and threaten customer loyalty.

I had a Bear Pit session organized every week on my calendar. It mattered to me and after I did a number of them, it mattered to the people in my organization. They came to expect the clusters and they looked forward to putting me on the spot.
They came to believe that their priorities and suggestions for improvement made a difference.

I made it a priority; it mattered.

It was one of the most important drivers of my effectiveness as a leader as long as the issues raised were followed up on and that the improvements people wanted were implemented.

Try it.

If you have honed your Pit leadership skills, you will stand out from others who will watch you with amazement.

The Pit isn’t for everyone, just those who want to pump up their career and leave others in their dust.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 1.21.21 at 06:23 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink