Omar L. Harris spent 22 years running businesses before he ever consulted on one. We talk about the band director who told him the hard truth, why we hold back the feedback people need, nice vs. kind, and what it means to call someone up instead of meeting them down.
"Sometimes we fail to give people feedback because we're scared of their reaction."
Omar L. Harris spent 22 years running businesses before he ever consulted on one, much of it as a senior pharma executive. Along the way he noticed something he couldn't unsee: companies paying six figures for culture programs that quietly disappeared by fall. Today he calls himself a culture systems architect, and he's the author of nine books.
In high school, Omar was first-chair oboe when his band director told him the truth: a freshman phenom was coming, and he was about to lose his seat. Instead of letting it happen quietly, the director challenged him to switch to bassoon. By senior year, Omar was all-state.
That's the heart of this conversation. Staying quiet is the easy thing. Telling someone the truth, for the sake of their growth, takes courage.
We talk about:
— Why leadership is a vocation, not a location (your title makes you a leader of others; what you do makes you a leader)
— The band director who told him the truth, and why it changed everything
— Why we avoid hard conversations: fear of rejection, fear of their reaction, fear of changing the relationship
— Why friction is necessary, and what productive conflict looks like
— Nice vs. kind: the day my seventh-grade grandson stood up in class, and what his teacher said about it
— "Calling people up" to a standard instead of meeting them down at their level
— Why feedback is a gift, and a requirement for growth
— Omar's free WHOM character assessment: work ethic, heart, optimism, maturity
— Where character comes from: scarcity vs. abundance, and the idea that you already have enough
— Lead with LOVE: listen, understand, validate
MORE FROM OMAR L. HARRIS
Free WHOM character assessment: characterdna.com
Everything Omar is doing: growwithwhom.com
LinkedIn: Omar L. Harris
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If you've been staying quiet to keep the peace, my free workshop is this Tuesday night.
🗓️ Close One Loop — Live: "How to Stop Being the Bigger Person"
A free 50-minute Zoom — Tuesday, October 27, 7:30pm Mountain (6:30 PT / 8:30 CT / 9:30 ET).
Why keeping the peace keeps costing you, and the conversation that changes it. You'll leave with one loop named and your next move on it.
Register: closetheloopsnow.com/live
Prefer to start on your own? My free Close One Loop tool is at closetheloopsnow.com.
The Liberated Life is hosted by Robin Quinn Keehn, Human Dynamics Specialist, Certified Mediator, and author of Stop Stealing From Yourself.
What conversation is worth your courage?