Passion and excitement are excellent qualities for leaders.
People follow those who demonstrate confidence, strength, and conviction. Leaders who display an enthusiasm for ideas, decisions, and people draw people in and charge them up. Combined with a talent for telling engaging stories, impassioned leaders are hard to resist.
It’s common for high-energy and passionate storytellers to have a recency bias. They want to tell others about whatever has most excited them lately. They like to recount new ideas, new insights, and new relationships for others.
“I had a really interesting conversation with an expert worth telling you about,” is a common refrain. They want others to share in the excitement they feel and do so by retelling the story with flair.
Unfortunately, their excitement and the need to take center stage often get the better of them.
Unknowingly, they take conversations and discussions off track by introducing their most recent breakthrough from the first moment in a meeting. Or they use the story to digress when others are discussing what everyone needs to hear. In either case, they distract the group or other party by shifting the focus onto their story.
This doesn’t sound like a big problem until you watch a leader consistently derail meetings and discussions with their accounts.
Whenever they usurp the conversation, they detract from what needs to be talked about. In many cases, the excitement of their recital is so big that it takes up all the time people have to get things done.
Hijacking meetings with personal stories and anecdotes is more common with leaders who enjoy attention, are impatient with meeting agendas, and like to use storytelling to connect with others.
Many leaders with this weakness often don’t realize they do this and generally can’t stop themselves, even when they are aware.
Giving a leader the feedback that they are unwittingly making the team less productive is delicate and can create a highly defensive reaction. The better choice is to set a strong and clear agenda and then to remind everyone that there will be time at the end to discuss recent developments and insights.
If that doesn’t work, suggest from the outset that the team wants to learn about what is on the leader’s mind, but it needs to get through the agenda first. Giving the loquacious leader this placeholder will typically encourage them to wait.
Leaders who hijack meetings do more harm to productivity and morale than they know. If you fit the profile, consider waiting to share your excitement and stories.
If you work with a leader who commandeers most conversations and meetings, find a way to make progress before they get rolling.
A leader’s passion to share their insights is a good thing until it overrides what needs to get done and discussed. Then that passion needs a lid.
