INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: good leaders know silence is not indifference

I was leading a team that I had inherited, so I hadn't hired a single person on it. First month in, still learning who everyone was.

In meetings one person asked constant questions and thought out loud. Another sat quiet and asked almost nothing. Early on I read the quiet one as checked out. That was my mistake.

Week three or four they caught me after a meeting with one of the sharpest ideas anyone had brought me. It came that afternoon, hours after we talked, better for the wait.

They weren't disengaged. They were just an internal processor. I should have seen it faster.

If you're leading a new team, watch who processes out loud and who processes alone. Plenty of leaders reward the loud ones because it is easier to see. The quiet ones catch what the rest miss.

The loudest voices are the easiest to manage because their thinking is visible. The quiet ones require more attention, but they are often seeing things no one else has caught.

Building something?
Crafted by works with companies on product strategy, industrial design, engineering, UX/UI, branding, packaging, and manufacturing.
[See how we can help →]