A value I do my best to live by is to assume that people are always doing their best and that their intentions are, on the whole, good.
And I encourage others to do the same.
Am I blissfully naïve? Living in la-la land?
No. Far from it.
With more than 13 years of executive leadership experience, and decades of life experience, I've dealt with some immensely challenging business and human situations.
I reached this one assumption because it's an extremely effective way to get people to perform at their absolute best.
In the work-place it breeds healthy, cohesive, collaborative cultures, and creates intentional, assertive, courageous leaders.
But there's a caution.
When I say 'assume people are doing their best', I'm not saying 'excuse other people's inappropriate behaviour'.
I'm saying 'increase people's abilities to self-regulate; don't excuse their behaviour when they don't.'
When you see inappropriate or unhelpful behaviour, deal with it.
Never excuse it, explain it away, or allow it to be repeated.
The message should be, "I noticed the behaviour and it isn't acceptable. Let's uncover what led to that and find a more effective way of dealing with the situation in future", not "I noticed the behaviour and I'm sure you were doing your best, but you might want to be careful in future."
The former is intentional.
The latter is a wishy-washy, cop-out, waste of everyone's time.
The desired outcome is to raise self-awareness and regulation, and to ellicit a behaviour change so that the person becomes a successful, highly valuable contributor.
Assuming people are doing their best positions a leader to notice behaviour, be curious about it, uncover underlying assumptions and poke at them, and shift perspectives and behaviour to something that drives success.
Great leaders have the difficult conversations and can lead to desirable behavioural norms.
Poor leaders avoid difficult conversations, make excuses for unhelpful behaviour, or get angry.
When people repeat inappropriate behaviour - and they will - they fail.
Never allow someone to fail because you didn't have the courage to have a conversation with them.
Notice the behaviour. And address it from a place of one assumption.
As a leader, that's your job.
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