Listen
One other way that Edmunds builds trust with his people is by listening to them.
“I think listening skills are the best thing you can have as a leader,” he says. “A lot of times, when you move up in a very senior position, you lose some of that, and there’s a lot of pressure to perform as a leader and to steer the business in a certain direction.”
One way to build your listening skills is to set up venues to hear what people have to say. Edmunds has a series of advisory groups that he’s established to do just that. For example, one is a group of Generation Y employees to give him a fresh perspective from the younger staff. He also has a senior manager group of people that have about eight to 12 years of experience and are one step away from being in the partnership. Then he also has a group made up of young partners in the firms. Each group meets with him quarterly.
“Having different constituency groups giving me input outside the normal chain of leadership is very important,” Edmunds says.
If you want to form your own advisory groups, it’s important to choose wisely who will sit on each.
“You want to look at the top 10 to 20 percent of your folks, because you want them to have the opportunity to have access to me in this informal setting so they can learn more about the firm,” he says. “They’re the future leaders of the firm. Usually, it’s the top performers in each of those categories. You simply look at the evaluations over a period of time, and if they have sustained high performance, I pick from them.”
He said it’s also important to make sure that as you select people, you make each group as diverse as possible, as well.
“I make sure there’s a good balance of men and women and a good balance of diversity, … ” he says. “Whatever we think would create a better team. It’s clear to us that diversity of thought and diversity of background in any kind of meeting or gathering you have helps you reach better answers.”
As you interact with these groups or even in your more regular meetings, it’s important to recognize that you don’t have all the answers.
“People (need to be) willing to check their ego at the door,” Edmunds says. “There are many people that rise in an organization and have a lot of the experiences and believe that they might have the answer before anybody else in the room does. Those are people that need to lean back in the chair and let everyone else talk and listen to them to see if there’s a better answer than what you came in with. … There are times when you want to lean in and times you want to lean out.”
It’s important to recognize when you need to do either of those.
“When you’re with a team and you want the team to get to a good answer for our people and for our client, lean out,” he says. “Let people talk about it, and let the group come to a decision versus leaning in and saying, ‘This is what I think the answer is,’ because then groupthink comes to that (decision) because you’re the most senior person in the room.”
By doing all of these things, you’ll develop a strong trust between you and your team, and that will translate through to all you do.
“There’s a difference between leading and managing,” Edmunds says. “If you’re trying to manage other people, you’re trying to get them to do things because you’re asking them to do it or requiring them to do it.
“But leaders inspire people to go in a different direction. Leadership is about inspirations. You can’t inspire people to do it unless you’re believable, unless you’re trusted, unless you’re straight with them, unless you have good listening skills, unless you convey to them that, in the end, it’s not about me as a leader. It’s about us being successful — successful in our organization, successful serving clients, successful giving back to the community.”
How to reach: Deloitte LLP, (415) 783-4000 or www.deloitte.com
