You Don’t Have To Like Another’s Behaviour—Just Don’t Judge It!

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself—Wayne Dyer 

A recent Leadership Bulletin focussed on why an “I’m OK, You’re OK” attitude is an intrinsic part of effective leadership. This triggered a lot of discussion .

What troubled some Bulletin readers was their perception of their lack of capacity to view another person as OK when the other person’s behaviour was clearly not OK—well, in the mind of the observer anyway.

These readers agreed:

• That when successful leaders communicate, they’re as clean-as-a-whistle. They’re authentic, believable and trustworthy.

• And that successful leaders are regarded as authentic, believable and trustworthy because they don’t have anything to hide when they’re communicating. They actually are authentic, believable and trustworthy.

• And they don’t have anything to hide because they take an “I’m OK, you’re OK” stance.

But the problem is so many leaders struggle to make the other person OK.

Here’s an example…

As Observers, Aren’t We Way Too Quick To Pass Judgement On Someone?

Let’s say the other person is one of your team members whose work ethic, you think, leaves a lot to be desired. They’re arriving late and leaving early. Or maybe they aren’t putting enough attention on their KPIs. They’re doing the bits they like and pretty much ignoring the other bits.

Your perception is that they’re just not up to scratch. They’re not prepared to step up, and you’re fed up with them and their attitude. You’ve made the decision that they’re not OK.

This is a common situation for leaders. Only last week, I too found myself incredibly frustrated with a particular person. I made them “not OK” for pretty much the entire week. I was making them so “not OK” that I wasn’t even tempted to have a discussion with them to attempt to resolve my dissatisfaction.

And Why Is This An Unacceptable Leadership Response

I understand that your other person is behaving in a way that you don’t like, you don’t appreciate and you don’t value.

Now here’s the really important bit…

You don’t know what’s having them behave that way.

You haven’t lived their life. You don’t know what happened to them when they were three. You don’t totally understand their natural behavioural wiring. You’re not fully informed about their values, what’s important to them. You don’t know that they had a huge, unresolved argument with their spouse earlier in the day. You don’t know that they didn’t sleep a wink last night because they’re concerned about the health of a child. You don’t know that their peer is getting in the way of them producing the outcomes they’re supposed to produce.

There are a lot of things you don’t know!

Because you haven’t been in their shoes since they arrived on planet Earth, you’re not in a position to judge them or their behaviours.

OK, OK, I know—they’ve wronged you. Or they’re making it hard for you to do your job. Or you simply find them hugely irritating.

However who are you to say that they have to behave in accordance with your rules for how human beings need to behave?

Sure, if you’re their boss and there’s a performance issue at stake, you need to deal with that. And it’s crucial that you behave as an admirable leader behaves, and take a “you’re OK” stance as you cleanly and clearly confront the performance issue.

Your Leadership Call To Action

Who are you currently judging as “not OK”?

You don’t need to like their behaviour. But will you accept that they are the way they are for good reason, and let them be OK?

Will you confront what you need to confront with them from a “you’re OK” stance?

As always, shoot me off an email if you, or a leader in your team, want assistance with this or another leadership habit. I’m happy to support if I can.