Chad Silverstein on being a master repairman: owning mistakes and repairing relationships. Poor communication is the number-one team problem because people interpret messages through their own context. Watch micro body language, ask trusted people what others actually heard, and circle back to repair when needed.
Chapters
I had to learn early on that being a master repairman or a master repair woman is really important. It's an important skill that every leader has to build, because if you're going to lead anything, you're going to say things and do things that hurt people or upset people, and you're going to make mistakes. And being able to repair and humble yourself to take responsibility at all costs, even sometimes when it's not even your fault, is something that I think great leaders just instinctively just do. They just kind of just have a way of being, and that way of being is to just own whatever they're involved in. They take responsibility and they repair. And one of the things you can do is you can watch people's, you know, body language, the micro messages they send, especially if you're talking in front of all of your employees and you pick up, you know, a tweak, you know, something that people are like, you know, they twinge, they, they, they. You could tell something changed, you said something, and it changed their way of seeing whatever it is that they're thinking. And it's, it's. Number one problem in teams is communication. People hear things the way they want to hear them. They hear things where they're, where they are in their life, and it's usually not the way you intended it. And when you have a lot of people that you're sending your message and you're sending lots of messages, make sure you have people play back what they heard. Have someone do that that you feel is very good at articulating on behalf of, like, all the people who are your target audience and you're in your crowd, all your employees, for example, and, and always ask for an opportunity to clarify whatever they heard so that you're not being held responsible for something you said six months ago and you don't remember saying it. So I think, you know, you have to be careful about brainstorming out loud and always circle back and repair when necessary, and you'll get a lot of respect. And people really app appreciate your attempt to repair whatever situation it is that you were involved in that caused a little bit of conflict.
