Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. Proverbs 15:22
“How’m I doin’?”
That was the famous question that one-time New York City Mayor Ed Koch would ask businesspeople, cab drivers, teachers, and anyone else he encountered as he travelled during his tenure in the Eighties.
It was a great calling card and a Public Relations dream, but it was also a pretty brave move. It guaranteed that Koch would invite daily, what most leaders avoid like dental work and food poisoning; criticism.
Whether pastors, or politicians, or coaches, or corporate managers, most people in places of prominence spend lots of time offering opinions; barking orders, casting vision, and laying out expectations, and very little time, simply asking those around them what kind of job they believe they’re doing as leaders.
That’s because most of us don’t really want to know. Oh, we might say we do, but truthfully, we just want the compliments, and accolades, and praises. We pop those things like they’re Skittles. But when it comes to seeking critique, or guidance, or genuine correction, well most of us will pass.
When many people reach a certain level of recognition and position, they become consumed with not showing weakness or admitting limitations, and most wrongly assume that asking the opinion of others does either or both of those things.
As a result, many leaders enter into self-induced atrophy, never evolving and never being pushed into those places of real brilliance that come from honest and wise criticism.
I love those bumper stickers that businesses put on their delivery trucks that say, “How’s My Driving?”, next to a phone number to call and answer that question. (Somehow, I only seem to notice those when the person ahead of me is driving like a blind lunatic, but that’s my problem). I’ve never actually called, but have always admired the gesture.
I usually then hear the question, “How’s My Leading?” echoing in my head. What a simple and powerful thought!
I think it would be something to have to wear that question on our chests each day, to let people know that they are free to tell us how we’re doing, and to invite them to speak real, direct truth into our lives.
Can you imagine a pastor asking the congregation, “How’s my ministering?”, a manager polling his employees, “How’s my communicating?”, a store owner petitioning his managers, “How’s my delegating?”
Any leader who is at all secure in his or her identity, who desires to grow, and who values those around them, can cultivate the practice of doing what Mayor Koch did, and seek to really know how others are impacted by what they do.
Today, whether you are a church leader, or business owner, or even a parent or spouse, perhaps you can muster up the humility and bravery, to look the people who report to you, work alongside you, or live with you, dead in the eyes and ask: “How’m I doin’?”
And then, after you have your answer, respond accordingly, and become the leader most people never become.
