Do You Want to Improve Your Leadership Experience? STOP Solving Problems!
An emergency requires quick decisions and clear instructions.
There may be a little time for a discussion with your team.
However, a vast majority of cases do not require an immediate decision.
There is almost always time for the team to consider the situation and develop solutions.
A thoughtful Leader needs to take time to let others react to the situation.
You have to create space for open decision-making for the entire team, even if that space is only a few minutes long.
This is harder in strict top-down leadership structures because leaders must solely anticipate decisions and alert their teams of upcoming decisions. In a top-down hierarchy, subordinates do not need to think ahead because the boss will decide when necessary.
How many times do issues that require decisions come up on short notice?
If this regularly happens, you have a reactive organization in a downward spiral. When problems aren’t foreseen, the team doesn’t get time to think about them, a quick decision is required from the boss, which doesn’t train the team, etc.
It would be best if you changed the cycle.
Here are a few ways to get your team thinking for themselves:
– If the decision needs to be made urgently, make it. Then explain why later, when there is time, and then have the team ‘Red Team’ decide to evaluate it.
– If the decision needs to be made on short notice, ask your team for input, even briefly, then make the decision.
– If the decisions can be delayed, push it back to your team to provide input. Do not force the team to come to a consensus. Consensus is a lazy leadership style that silences differences and those in dissent. Cherish dissent. Remember, if everyone thinks as you do, you don’t need them.