Laura E. Ellsworth’s goal as a leader is to move beyond a certain movie moment.
“There’s this great scene in ‘Casablanca’ where Ilsa leans against Rick’s shoulder and she says, ‘I’m so tired. You’ll have to think for both of us now,’” says Ellsworth, the partner-in-charge of Jones Day’s Pittsburgh office.
Ellsworth could play Rick’s role and make decisions for her 115 employees, but her ultimate goal is to wean them off of her support by encouraging them to think independently.
Smart Business spoke with Ellsworth about inspiring your employees to take ownership of their ideas.
Q. How do you create an idea-welcoming environment?
Avoid falling into the trap that you know more than everybody around you. If you assume that you know less, you’ll learn more.
I always talk about obliterating the inner sanctum. When there is a view that there’s an in crowd or some inner sanctum, people don’t take it onto themselves to be part of the overall operation because they think somebody else is doing the planning and thinking for them. If it is clear that there is just a group enterprise and we are all in this together, you tend to get a lot more engagement from a lot more levels.
Some ways that you can do that can be very personal. Have people over to your house for dinner. Do things outside the office that aren’t necessarily related to office things. You are better off if you connect on many different levels.
Q. How do you encourage employees to step out of their comfort zone?
I’ll say, ‘I would love to see you do X,’ but I’m also very candid with people about what I see as the pros and cons of different things that they might undertake. And I hope that they are also reciprocally candid with me, so if they say, ‘That’s just not something that I want to invest my time in,’ they understand why I thought it would be a good idea, I understand why they don’t think it would be a good idea, and we both move on.
If they repeatedly refuse to engage, you become concerned that it’s the underlying investment of time or commitment to the enterprise. Then you have to deal with it differently.
Giving people an actual opportunity to assume the responsibility and make a project their own is critical. Rather than directing someone to go do a task, explain to them the outcome that you want at the far end and then let them sort out for themselves how best to get there.
