Hidden Potential by Adam Grant

Author:Adam Grant [Grant, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2023-10-24T00:00:00+00:00

Collective intelligence is best served by a different kind of leader. The people to promote are the ones with the prosocial skills to put the mission above their ego—and team cohesion above personal glory. They know that the goal isn’t to be the smartest person in the room; it’s to make the entire room smarter.

Glued Together We Stand

After the mine collapsed in Chile, the first few days of the rescue effort were sheer chaos. There were multiple police units on the scene along with mining professionals, firefighters, rescue workers, and rock climbers. There were geologists and engineers analyzing the technical possibilities. There were mining convoys working haphazardly to deploy six different types of drills. It was a group of capable people, not a cohesive team capable of collective intelligence. Four days in, Chile’s president summoned a leader.

The order came so suddenly that André Sougarret would later say it felt as if he’d been kidnapped. After more than two decades as a mining engineer in Chile, André was managing the world’s largest underground mine. He was working there, about 600 miles south of the accident, when he got an urgent request to report to the presidential palace. He was still wearing his miner’s helmet as he boarded the presidential jet and received his directive in midair: lead the mission to rescue the 33 men trapped in the Copiapó mine.

It was a race against the clock—every second counted. Facing that level of pressure with lives hanging in the balance, many of us would rely on drill sergeants to whip the group into shape and establish order. But when people are already determined, we don’t need a leader to bark commands. Research demonstrates that when organizations have cultures that prize results above relationships, if they have a leader who puts people first, they actually achieve greater performance gains. When everyone is scrambling to make a rapid rescue, you want someone in charge who cares about everyone.

It’s Very Extraverted at the Top

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