LaL 072: Shared Leadership: Giving a Voice to Others with Kevin Hancock

Kevin Hancock is CEO of Hancock Lumber Company, one of the oldest companies in America and six-time recipient of the “Best Places to Work in Maine” award. In 2010, at the peak of the national housing and mortgage market collapse, Kevin acquired a rare neurological voice disorder called Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD).  When his own voice became weakened, he developed a new leadership style focused on strengthening the voices of others. He is now a champion of a work culture where everyone leads and every voice is trusted, respected, and heard. His new book, The Seventh Power: One CEO’s Journey into the Business of Shared Leadership, shares the philosophy, values, and strategies Hancock Lumber Company has embraced on its journey toward becoming an employee-centric company.
LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
– Throughout history, leaders and power have been centralized. Today, the opposite is needed: Leadership models that disperse power, give strength to others, and share leadership broadly.
– If every individual is living a full, authentic life; speaking with their own, true voice the entire tribe will be made strong.
– People often already know what to do. Empower them (and make it safe for them) to take action.
– Across time, leaders of organizations have probably done more to limit, restrict, intimidate, and direct the voices of others rather than free them.
– The business of business is more than just business—it is a human exercise of which profit is one outcome of a higher calling.
– The world is best changed when you focus on what is right beside you.
– If everyone on earth felt trusted, respected, valued, heard, and safe everything might change.
– Shared leadership doesn’t lead to anarchy but increases discipline, alignment, productivity, and unity.
– People are more apt to support what they helped to create.
– If employees have a world-class experience, they will make sure that the customers do as well.
– In this model, managers and supervisors should disperse – rather than collect – leadership. For employees, leadership should be accepted and shared rather than spectated or rejected.
– The truth of a company is plural, not singular. The truth is what everyone is seeing and experiencing. So the biggest gift a leadership team could have is to know what everyone is thinking.
QUESTIONS TO INSPIRE US TO ACTION
– What is some lesson, saying, or experience that continues to influence your leadership to this day? “We must be the change we wish to see in the world” – Gandhi 
– Use three descriptors to finish this sentence: “A leader is…” Self-aware, humble, and appreciative.
– What is a question that leaders should be asking either themselves or others? In what way do I need to change?
– What book would you recommend to leaders? Three by Jim Collins: Build to Last, Good to Great, and How the Mighty Fall.
– If you could get every listener to start doing something THIS week to help them be a better leader, what would it be? Focus a bit less on others and a bit more on ourselves.
– As a general life principle, is it better to ask “why?” or “why not?” “Why not?” because it challenges the existing paradigms and expands the zone of thinking in terms of what might be possible.
Website:
https://kevindhancock.com/
Find Kevin on social media:
Twitter: @hancocklumber
Instagram: @kevindhancock
Facebook: @kevindhancock