Kathy, Haven't Heard from You Yet

I wish I'd kept track of which books say that a good leader will get all team members to speak up in a meeting.

Welch, in Winning, says, "leaders use every interaction to evaluate, coach and build self-confidence." How pithy.

How can we get Moses Rubinson to benefit from the body of knowledge? Consider David Robson in "The Intelligence Trap : Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes" :

Beyond the “reading the mind in the eyes" test, Woolley has also probed the specific interactions that can elevate or destroy a team's thinking. Companies may value someone who is willing to take charge when a group lacks a hierarchy, for instance — the kind of person who may think of themselves as a “natural leader." Yet when Woolley’s team measured how often each member spoke, they found that the better groups tend to allow each member to participate equally; the worst groups, in contrast, tended to be dominated by just one or two people.

Those more domineering people don’t have to be excessively loud or rude, but if they give the impression that they know everything already, other team members will feel they have nothing to contribute, which deprives the group of valuable information and alternative points of View.Untempered enthusiasm can be a vice."

Bottom line, if you're in a meeting where one person speaks 95% of the time and ends the meeting with "does anyone have anything", you're in the wrong place :)