Yusuf burst into my office spluttering: my hotdog empire! It’s completely destroyed! This wasn't the quiet work day I was expecting. That’s awful, I ventured, what happened? He let out a huge sigh: a chef tried to free a stuck hotdog from the conveyor and got his fingers trapped in the rollers. By the time I got to the restaurant, it was crawling with police and paramedics. The chef’s okay, but the health inspector closed us down. Yusuf’s big idea was to create a chain of hotdog restaurants where customers could see their hotdogs cooking on a conveyor, a bit like Sushi Train. It sounds bonkers, but the test site was a huge hit. If that chef had only used a fork, Yusuf could have been the Colonel Sanders of hotdogs! Colonel Harland David Sanders (1890 - 1980) was an American businessman and founder of fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Yusuf and I were colleagues at a pharmaceutical company, but, unlike me, he had boundless confidence and was constantly thinking up side-hustles. He was the kind of work friend we all need: wise, caring and endlessly fun. There are four kinds of people, he once said. People who know they’re good. People who think they’re good. People who don’t know they’re good. And people who know they’re no good. So what, I shot back? So, the little-known secret of great leaders is this: find people who don’t know they’re good and give them the confidence they need to succeed. The already confident will take care of themselves. Deluded people are exhausting. But show someone with potential how good they are and you’ll unlock incredible creativity and performance. Yusuf’s insights have come to mind a lot recently. I’ve done 360° assessments on dozens of leaders in Rwanda, and one profile keeps coming up: the leader who doesn’t know how good they are. These leaders often have a distorted idea of what good leadership looks like. Their self-ratings show a preference for defensive behaviours: things like dependence and perfectionism. But the feedback they get from colleagues tells a different story: they’re encouraging integrity, achievement, teamwork, and growth, all hallmarks of effective leadership. Nothing gives me more joy than showing leaders like this their feedback results, because the relief they feel is palpable. They can let go of the stress they’ve been carrying about not being tough or perfect enough. Instead, they can double down on the amazing things they are already doing to help their colleagues and companies succeed. The message to CEOs is simple. Some of your highest potential people are being held back by inaccurate beliefs about what they should be doing. With the right encouragement, you could unleash a Colonel Sanders of your own! Christian Sellars is the CEO of Transforming Engagements (TES) Ltd, a Kigali-based consultancy that helps organisations prosper by transforming leadership and culture. Reach him at christian@transformingengagements.com.
