Ah, the fear of looking weak; the fear of looking unqualified, insecure, and so on. I believe these are a few of the major reasons many people in positions of leadership don’t ask questions, or they don’t ask for help.

Sometimes the queries do occur behind closed doors in a private phone call with a peer. That’s fine! And there were a few times over the years when I didn’t always recognize when I could have personally benefited from reaching out like this more often.

But there are also situations that warrant an immediate question or call for assistance. Far too often I saw people “reprimanded” for exactly what the Army Captain did in your blog post. I was even the recipient of it myself a few times.

I wish more people had the leadership confidence to ask for advice and to encourage others to do the same. No human is perfect and the truly wise and confident leader seeks advice, and then makes the decision based on this advice.

Karen