TAMMY ERICKSON, CONT’D

organization — to make sure that it is constantly filled with challenging new ideas and perspectives. The worst thing a leader can do is let her organization stagnate. Third, they have to figure out how to bind the organization together. Leaders must create the ‘glue’ — I call it meaning, others call it a sense of purpose, but basically, it means providing an answer to the question, ‘Why are we all here, and what is holding us together?’ Everyone throughout the organization must be very clear on that. The fourth aspect is the ability to ask great questions. Leaders today don’t need to have all the answers, but they do have to know how to ask great questions — and they have to continually ask them in a way that invites others to be part of the solution.

The great thing about these four abilities is that they don’t require you to be some kind of super-human, one-in-amillion individual: these are things that we can all learn to do. There is a lot known today about how to create collaborative capacity and how to design a workplace environment so that it’s meaningful for employees, and these things can be taught.

I agree with Herminia that today’s leaders should think of themselves more like architects, whose role is to create a context within their organization. An architect can walk into any building and say, ‘There’s a crack in the ceiling over there; and that door is in a really awkward place’. They can figure out what needs attention within minutes — and leaders have to be able to do the same thing.