If you’ve logged a few decades of work, chances are you now occasionally find yourself in a particularly uncomfortable situation. Your young team is very excited about a new strategy they’ve come up with. But to you, it’s obvious the approach won’t work. Why? You just know. And you can’t believe it’s not obvious to everyone else. What to do? You’re at an intersection where you can choose one of three paths to proceed. Two are destructive but easier, and one is constructive but harder. The latter demonstrates true leadership.
Option one: Acquiesce and agree.
This is the easiest way out, a path I have taken more times than I care to admit. Sometimes it’s because I didn’t believe I’d be listened to. Why rock the boat, when it won’t change course? Or sometimes it’s been within a culture where dissent is not welcomed. Or occasionally, I was disengaged from the work and knowing I would soon be leaving. Why invest the time? Then, when it turned out my “it won’t work” feeling was right, I felt a silent vengeance, certainly not a healthy feeling. The most important reason not to choose this option, though, is that by not speaking up you are denying the team the best possible outcome of the strategy, as well as the benefit of your insight, which prevents them from learning.
Option two: Announce your disagreement, but make no effort to bring the team along.
You’re dug-in and closed off. “Because I just know” is off-putting to teammates and creates a divide. This is akin to the parental line, “Because I said so” (which unfortunately I have resorted to on occasion), but this only works when there’s a clear division of power. Of course, your instinct may feel like something that can’t be explained. But most likely, you have not taken the time to unravel it or you don’t have confidence that your explanation will be listened to. Unfortunately, the “because I just know” approach rarely results in a change of direction. Instead, it leaves you as the team naysayer, which is not a career-enhancing place to be. Even if you turn out to have been right.
Option three: Discern your rationale and ask questions.
This approach takes the most effort, and success can’t be guaranteed. But it still offers the highest probability of a positive outcome. You will first need to take some time to pull apart the many strands of your experience that are informing your instinct that the proposed strategy will not work. Then you will need to explain this to your team. How to approach this explanation so it is best received? Like many difficult conversations, asking questions is the least off-putting approach. The Socratic method is still valuable today as a way to lead people with divergent opinions to the conclusion you have drawn.
Taking the time to examine exactly why “you just know” can be an extremely constructive exercise for your team. A few different things may result, all positive. First, you have increased the chance that the team will abandon the strategy you contend won’t work. In fact, as the team discusses this and you lead them to your conclusion, an alternative path may present itself that is even better than the original strategy. In addition, the team is learning and gaining the value of your experience.
I once heard someone say that true leadership is the ability to convince others to follow you, without the incentive of money or job position. If you take the time to help others see what you’ve learned through decades of experience, you are a true leader. You’re bringing your coworkers along in the thought process, teaching them along the way. I can’t think of a better way to earn your leadership stripes.