The way I view the world has changed drastically as soon as I stepped up in a leadership role. I would like to discuss one specific topic which I have learned in the initial days. “Communication as a Leader”.
As a leader, your team makes one key assumption.
“You hold more information than any of us”
The traditional hierarchical org structure controls the flow of information from top to bottom. A casual chat by an exec leader could also be taken in a different context altogether. This “reading between the lines” is a clear side effect of the above assumption. Members of the team will kick in their “imagination” to let flow their creative ideas, causing many gossips.
The higher up you are, the more careful in the way you communicate. I have come across this Pendulum analogy, wherein a small thought, idea, or preference from a leader would create an avalanche effect across the teams, similar to a leader holding a pendulum where a slight move would make a major swing(Chaos/Impact) at the bottom layer.
A leader also needs to be quite careful in giving suggestions during a brainstorming discussion. The suggestions are typically taken as orders, blocking any new ideas coming to the arena.
This interesting yet cunning piece of advice given by Saguni to Duryodhana in an Indian epic, “Mahabharata”.
Saguni says,
”The mouth is not for speaking your mind, rather delude”
While the above quote is extreme and seen as immoral, the gist is to give strong forethought on impact it can create should the message is misunderstood.