Open door and closed minds

Many offices have an “open door” policy basically meaning that there aren’t hierarchies and people won’t sit behind closed doors. I guess it also was a way to break down the strict hierarchies that we had in Government offices with senior folk sitting behind heavy wooden doors !! But today in the age of glass cabins, the concept of closed door is a little different..

Many senior folk force themselves to keep the door open, but shut their minds tightly – refusing to accept new ideas, bringing people around to their views and not being open to learning. I got a question today about why leaders aren’t inclusive ? Well, at a very deep level, most senior leaders have senior well established mature egos and being inclusive needs true humility – not the one where you hunch your shoulders and accept every brickbat and practise speaking softly, but the true humility where you are willing to move from your stated position, let go of your “brilliant” idea for the “better” idea and be ready to deal with chaos. A team that doesn’t have differing views and doesn’t have strong debates/confrontations will not move forward – harmony is a death knell. But many of the senior leaders are uncomfortable with letting go of their stated position and that’s why inclusiveness is not possible for them.

And these kind of leaders can keep the door of their cabins open, but their minds are closed, the doors to their minds are closed ! Remember to keep the door to your minds open, throw open the windows too – it makes no difference then if you sit behind a fortified wall, let alone a closed door.