𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰.

You want someone 'at your six' to alert you to incoming dangers.

Yet when we are stressed, our bias is for '𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴', we yearn for '𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨', and we avoid those we see as '𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘵'.

However, 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐨 𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐥.

Good leaders know that compliance, eagerness to please, and lack of assertiveness 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 character traits that should earn someone a promotion.

Yet, in times of radical change, I've seen leaders, time and again, fall into the trap of allowing their unconscious habits of trying to control the risks to overrule what they know about 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩. Rather than promoting someone who is willing to disagree with them, and point out the errors of judgement, insight, or fact to them, ... 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒐𝒂𝒅 and promote those that they feel they can more easily influence.

This, in turn, creates 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 - as the leader then may feel less resistance from those that they 'lead' when making difficult decisions, but they will also experience less warnings of danger in relation to their decisions.

Specifically, their choice of a 'deputy' that is 'compliant' creates an environment bereft of psychological safety.

As a leader, your choices are on display, and all employees watch you (regardless if you want this or not), comment to each other on your choices, and in the absence of transparency, fill the information vacuum with assumptions.

If your choices for promotions are those that are either 'like you', or that won't question your decisions - the message you are sending is that 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞𝐬.

You are creating a culture where people do not feel safe to raise potential risks to the organisation, and definitely don't feel comfortable to raise problems that they see.

But you, as a leader, have the potential to create cultures of transparency; cultures of psychological safety; and a legacy for your own leadership identity, which will create a better world.

Choose the Insightful Path, and choose to promote those people in your organisation that are willing to stand up for others, and point out where they think things are going wrong. It is never too late to work on your legacy. There is always time to make values based decisions.

I hope you choose the Insightful Path. You will be creating a better world if you do.