Early in my career, I was exposed to what I consider a very important leadership concept: Leadership comes from every chair. All businesses, large or small, have faced a multitude of challenges these past 18 months. The answers don’t always come from the top. In fact, often, they do not. That’s why I believe in leadership from every chair. Good ideas can come from everywhere, and more often than not, the answer is in the room. Empowering everyone on the team to feel valued means welcoming ideas, coming up with answers to problems or simply seeing a concept with fresh eyes. This can create value that is frequently overlooked.
I received a phone call the other day from an architectural firm I frequently work with seeking technical assistance with a design element for a new building they were working on. We discussed a few potential solutions, but none of them satisfied each requirement the architect was looking to achieve. I reached out to our internal engineering team for their input, but they too could only come up with a handful of options that fell short of the need. One of our newest team members overheard me on the phone discussing this problem, and took the initiative to speak up, sharing an idea that none of us thought of. Turns out, all of us were looking at what already existed in our product offerings versus looking at what we could create that not only worked but met each requirement the architect was looking for.