And his employees “stopped making suggestions because they were afraid they'd get shot down.”
He fixed the problem by turning to participative leadership.
Cushard would start meetings to set the context and the agenda and then leave,
literally. He says,
“They did not want me there.
My presence hindered thinking.” Tim Johnson, who heads sales for Rubicon, said, “When the CEO became a member of the meeting and not the center of the meeting, so much more got accomplished.” Today, his managers take turns running the meetings. Cushard now goes to just three meetings a week and gets updates on the rest. He said, as owners of business, “we think we know best, but we don't, not all of the time. I realized that it's not all about me.”