Better Than a Pedometer

Fitbits and other kinds of activity trackers have become quite popular over the last few years. The idea is simple. Raising your awareness of the number of steps taken will encourage you to take more steps and be more active, thereby improving your overall health. If I could invent a device to improve a person’s leadership, it would be a “wordometer.” Smaller than a penny, this item would be put on a chain and worn around your neck. It would measure the number of words spoken over the course of a day. Unlike the pedometer, the goal with this device is to encourage leaders to reduce the number of words that are spoken, not increase them. Why do I believe that this would improve your leadership? My observation is that many leaders speak far too much and listen far too little. This is especially true for ministry leaders, who have been trained to speak and to persuade, and who consider this to be one of their primary strengths. The result is often a lack of listening and a lack of collaboration. Those who surround the leader sit in silence, keeping their own great ideas to themselves. The second generation of my invention would monitor meetings and would calculate the percentage of the time that the leader was speaking. In general, the first chair (or the ranking person in the meeting) should speak less, not more, than his or her pro rata share of the time. Their words automatically carry more weight, so they don’t need to weigh the meeting down with the volume of their verbiage. I don’t expect my invention to be on the market any time soon, so here’s a simple suggestion. Talk less and listen more. After a meeting, reflect on whether you dominated the conversation. If you’re brave, ask a trusted associate whether you talk too much. Or invite this person to help you manage your “contributions” in meetings. If all else fails, take an old pedometer and tape it across your mouth. A little self-deprecating humor never hurts. It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>