Outside Outsights and Work That Matters
Kouzes and Posner talk about the need for leaders to exercise outsight, along with insight.
Insight is the ability to understand the inner nature of things. Outsight is the awareness and understanding that comes from outside forces.
In a practical sense, this means that leaders should lead “by wandering about and asking questions.” (Kouzes and Posner, “The Leadership Challenge, P. 158-159)
The leader who does this will find this practice to influence people to take pride and to seek innovation. That’s what the research proposes. If my leadership is taking interest in what I’m doing and thinking with me about the problems I have to solve, I know what I do actually matters.
And people are motivated by this. In knowing "my work matters".
How do you practice “outsight” when you’re leading without a position? Supervisors could frown on you walking around seeking solutions instead of actually doing your work.
Do your work.
Seek outside outsights.
Read, study and practice outside your field of expertise. The solution to an accounting problem could be found in taking up jazz guitar. A solution to a coding puzzle could be in a food documentary on Netflix. Engineering and birdwatching may have more in common than you know.
Look outside what you know and connect the dots. Disparate knowledge connects in interesting and often useful and essential ways.
Let this be your way of “leading by wandering about.”
