I always feel valued and heard within my executive team. YES | NO

Tough question! It is deliberately polarizing – ‘sometimes’ or ‘it depends’ responses are not allowed!

This is one of the seven questions I ask executive teams as part of the Fearless Leadership Quiz. The Quiz gives us a sense of where to focus our initial attention in a Fearless Leadership program.

How would you answer that in your own team context? Always? Valued? Heard?

If your answer is ‘yes’, that’s fabulous. With that level of confidence and influence, to what extent are you ensuring that others in your team feel valued and heard?

If your answer is ‘no’, these questions might be a good place to start:

• What is behind your ‘no’? Is it more about you? Or the dynamics of the team?
• In what situations do you feel more heard and valued? And when less so?
• Who do you think is heard in your team? Is it the same person/people every time, or dependent on topic and context?
• What role does the senior leader (the CEO in an executive team) play in ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to speak and be heard?
• What communication protocols does your team have in place to increase inclusion? (eg Asking before the end of a conversation ‘Who has an alternative view?’ is a valuable team process.)
• How do you think others in your team would answer this question?
• What could be the value in initiating a team conversation on this topic?
• When team members come from a place of empathy and curiosity , all voices can be heard, including the dissenting voices. When everyone is welcomed as part of the team, it’s possible to harvest all ideas and leverage thinking diversity in the team. That is a Fearless Leadership Team.

Go Fearlessly – Corrinne