The Perfect Solution - How to Get Your Team On Board
You’ve got it!
You know you’ve figured out the perfect way to solve that thorny issue that’s been challenging your team. You call them together and outline your solution. You tell them how excited you are, assign responsibilities to everyone and send them off to get going on the project - yeah, team!
On their way out, you may not notice one person who looks as if he has something to say, then thinks better of it, or one person nudging another and a couple of people looking resigned.
Management books tell you how important it is to motivate your team, and you feel pretty good about conveying your enthusiasm. Great job, right?
Yes. And no.
Yes, it is important and motivating for a leader to show some vulnerability by being open with their emotions. However, far better evidence of vulnerability and leadership would have been to ask for your team’s opinions — to get them to try to shoot holes in your idea or make it better.
Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives who can disagree with you without fear of retaliation.
Whether your proposed solution is or isn’t the right answer is not the issue.
How much better could it be if others could add to it? How much time could the whole team save if someone felt safe enough to bring up a potential pitfall?
With respect to motivation, your team will surely be far more motivated to implement a solution to which they feel they contributed.
What do you think? Am I right? Please let me know your thoughts!
~ Tracey
Fundamental of the Week #4: GIVE UP THE NEED TO BE RIGHT
Keep your ego, personal agenda, and judgments out of the way of doing what’s best for the team or client. Don’t let your need to “be right” interfere with hearing others and seeing other possibilities.
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