“You do what?” I asked, with utter disbelief written on my face, as this director told me that he just shows up and sits in on meetings that he wasn’t invited to. I’d never heard of anyone doing this.
In my mind I was questioning if this was a stroke of genius or a path to termination. “Wait a minute, did you just say that you show up and attend meetings that you weren’t invited to? Whose meetings are they?”
I wanted to know if this was a surprise management tactic to see how his team performs or something incredibly different. “Whenever I see that a meeting is taking place that I’m interested in, I go.”
It didn’t matter to him if they were from a different part of the business, unrelated to his role, or even with more senior colleagues. If he was interested, he went.
In defence of his practice he said, “And, no one notices. Everyone in the meeting, even the host, just assumes somebody else asked me to be there.” This act of pure courage positions him to be at the core of corporate discussions and gives him a platform to contribute.
In response to my pondering if this was a stroke genius or plain stupid, it’s stupidly genius. Listening to his story made me smile from ear to ear and answer, “Absolutely!” when he asked me if I’d be willing to be his coach.
His act is unheard of and shows a type of courage and curiosity that leaders could benefit from. I’m sick and tired of self-imposed restrictions that most people put on themselves. Have you ever thought, “If only they’d invite me to that meeting?”
It wasn’t the invitation that this leader was interested in, it was participating. And he found a way to do it.
If you limit yourself by the perceived boundaries of corporate life, you are allowing somebody else to limit what you can accomplish. As I push on this point, I’m aware of the fine line that separates genius from anarchy. If everyone rejects hierarchy and fails to recognise authority or other controlling systems, your company may descend into a state of disorder.
But you don’t need to be threatened by the possibility of anarchy as very few people actually demonstrate this level of courage. Corporate hallways are filled with cowards who are afraid to speak up in the meetings they were invited to. So why would you ever think they’d go to a meeting when they weren’t invited?
The pendulum is too far on the side of caution; you could benefit from a healthy dose of courage. This leader demonstrated the rare, but essential, corporate ability to do something that’s seen as frightful.
It’s saddening how many people put their professional destiny in the hands of others or a system rather than taking control themselves.
Just after the opening of Jebal Ali Free Zone, they were left with the difficult task of luring companies to come to Dubai and the free zone. Thinking who may be open to coming to Dubai, they chose Hong Kong as the first stop. In a few years, Hong Kong was slated to return to China’s sovereignty and transition to Chinese rule, so the thinking was these companies would want a new location and why not Dubai.
Yet, JAFZA was a brand new and unknown to the global business community.
Rather than being limited by the local business community who said no one would ever want to come to JAFZA, Sultan Bin Sulayem had the courage to go to Hong Kong and plead Dubai’s case. After a painful day of hearing “No, no, we’re not interested, we’ll stay in Hong Kong ...”, Bin Sulayem and his team had a choice: demonstrate courage or go home.
What would you do? Most people would accept a no as no and go home.
Instead Bin Sulayem asked his team, “When are they saying no?” After concluding it was when they mentioned manufacturing, they adjusted their pitch and went right back the next day to convince them to come to Dubai. This same courage led them to knock on the doors of the biggest companies around the world, including the Fortune 500. Thirty years later JAFZA is home to over 7,000 companies.
The choice to be courageous is in your hands. You can choose to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation. Or live with the limitations if you don’t.
You can allow your fear to control you or you can control your fear. It’s your choice!
The writer is a CEO Coach and author of “Leadership Dubai Style”. Contact him at tsw@tommyweir.com