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“I desire what is good. Therefore, everyone who doesn’t agree with me is a traitor.” King George III of England

  

 I recently encountered what I call “King George III Mentality.” I was invited to join a private online social networking group. However, the participants were not active. No one participated in the forums or started discussions—that is except for the website organizer.

 

Well, after observing the lack of conversation and networking, I decided to start a few discussions in the forum— I felt like I had received some good insight and materials and I wanted to share it with the network. I was mainly passing on documents and things I had created to help my business as well as a lot of material that was passed down to me from another top leader in the industry.

 

Well, within a few days of my posting, I received a phone call informing me that all of my posts and discussions were deleted. I was told that everything I posted went totally against the philosophy of the website organizer—that the information I posted from the other leader in the industry was “against everything they stood for and taught.” I was then informed that this was their site and that anything I posted would have to be approved by them. 

 

Of course my intentions were not to offend, but I sure did step on some toes and might I add ego! I believe  the website organizer had the right to set up any rules they wanted to—however, not allowing free participation and discussion was an area of weakness for this leader. The leader was not interested in learning from discussion and dialogue. It was their way or the highway. That was clear. Too bad, everyone could have learned from our different point of views.

 

This person clearly had the symptoms of “King George III Mentality” and was showing an area of weakness in their leadership—they did not value, what author John Maxwell calls the skill of “Encouraging the Participation of Shared Thinking”

 

Maxwell says that “Good thinkers, especially those who are also good leaders, understand the power of shared thinking. They know that when they value the thoughts and ideas of others, they receive the compounding results of shared thinking and accomplish more than they ever could on their own. ” (Thinking For A Change p.210)

 

Because my information and content was not deemed, I decided not to actively participate on the site. It’s unfortunate , because I could have shared a lot of helpful information.

 

About 3 months after this incident, I was contacted my the national office of a company. They wanted to introduce themselves to me because of how they had noticed my online marketing efforts. I was then invited to participate on their site in order to share my knowledge. And of course I did—and I have been happy to share and make the overall community a better place—not to mention—the site is full of great information because shared is promoted and valued!

 

So, if you are in a leadership position and you want to grow in the area of Shared Thinking, here are 2 things to ask yourself:

 

1. Am I emotionally secure or do I lack confidence? Most people who lack confidence worry about their status, position, or power tend to keep people at bay. It takes a secure person to consider others’ ideas.

 

2. Do I place value on people? You won’t value the ideas of a person if you don’t value and respect the person himself.

 

By “Encouraging the Participation of Shared Thinking” you will be able to harness the ideas of others and take your business or organization to the next level of success! It’s like Ken Blanchard says, “None of us is as smart as all of us”