Give Your People Permission To Bring Problems To The Table

“Give your people permission to bring problems to the table. Otherwise, they are managing a secret.”- Alan Mullally, CEO, Ford.

Mullally has a reputation for turning businesses around. He’s not a cost cutter. He’s not a workforce reducer. He’s a culture builder.

You get some insight into how he builds a culture with this quote.

1. Trust the people. He knows where the knowledge is gathered. He trusts those who do the work.

2. Give them power to make a difference. Each of us are equipped to make a unique difference in our enterprise. We are most successful when your ideas can be heard.

3. Open communication. Effective leaders work hard at being available and approachable. They make it safe to express a dissenting opinion by listening, teaching and learning.

I’m reading a book call “Remarkable” by David Salyers. He said we are each at our best when we take up the biggest problem in our way and use our abilities to solve it.

Our challenge is to create an environment where every teammate feels free to attack those issues.