Stay In The Proper Lane

I'm back from the holidays...thank God. I wanted to share a quick story of something that happened to me recently. On the way home from Subway with my family, I saw that dreaded sight in my rear view mirror....blue lights! I quickly glanced at my speedometer, thinking maybe I was speeding...but I was okay on speed. So I pulled over to the side of the road and awaited the not-so-friendly officer. Instead of coming to the door, he yelled "GET OUT OF THE CAR!", so I got out and went to the back of my car to see what the problem was. Now, you have to know me to appreciate this situation...I've never had a drink of alcohol in my LIFE, and I've definitely never abused drugs. After calling in my driving record and seeing a perfectly clean record, the officer informed me that he pulled me over because of FAILURE TO MAINTAIN MY LANE. He says my tire touched the white line, and then I swerved and touched the yellow line, and then back to the white line...so he wanted to check me out to make sure I wasn't intoxicated. I was amazed because I thought I was right in the middle of the road, but I said "sorry" and got back in my car to go home. And here's where it got interesting...

On re-entering my vehicle, I told my wife and sister-in-law that the officer said I was swerving out of my lane. They both said "Oh yeah, you were. We noticed back up the road about a mile ago." They noticed but they didn't say anything about it. I believe leadership is like a bus (or a Jeep Wrangler in this case)...you are driving and you have passengers riding with you. They are there to support your vision and help you carry it out...but they are also there to help you "stay in the proper lane". In this case they didn't say anything, but how often do your people try to help bring adjustment only for you to shut them down? Maybe you can learn from my mistakes!

Here are a few questions I've asked myself after this incident:

Does my team have the right to challenge or help adjust me?
If you have created a safe atmosphere and culture where they can express themselves freely, your teammates can be a huge source of ideas and solutions.

Does my team have the ability to ask me the tough questions?
Maybe they've never been taught how to express themselves. Note: Some of your best input will come through some people indirectly. They may make a joke about something that is really important to them to get your attention. They also may tell you about how someone else is doing something as a subtle way of introducing a new idea to you. Just be sensitive, you may have to pay attention at first.

Would I even listen to them if they did speak up?
Don't wait til it's too late to make adjustments. Listen to the people riding with you NOW!