Why admitting you don’t know builds performance
We are living in a time of extraordinary leadership challenges, writes Margot Faraci.
President Joe Biden destroys a Chinese spy balloon, after waiting until it has passed over densely populated areas, in order to protect citizens.
His detractors say it was the wrong decision: he should have acted sooner, stronger.
Closer to home, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pursues an Indigenous voice to parliament, while some Indigenous leaders disagree.
A terrifying earthquake in Turkey and Syria kills thousands and leaves two countries in a state of disaster. What decisions, complex and uncertain, will be forced through quickly and without all the right information? Who will make the right calls? How will these leaders find the courage to admit what they don’t know and insist on the truth from their teams, knowing their leadership is neither infallible nor infinitely scalable? Those who do, will do best.
We are living with extraordinary leadership challenges. Our planet is in distress, our global dependence on each other is unprecedented, and we are working our way through the aftermath of a pandemic, the uncertainty of war in Europe and a looming global recession.
What would make any leader think they have all the answers? And yet, too often bosses think they need to have the answers.
Now, many leaders say they’re up for a debate.
You’ve worked for them – they say they want to hear differences of opinion but when you try to speak up, they don’t listen, they speak over you, reinforce their own view, or simply tell you the decision has been made.
These are managers, not leaders. They hope they’re projecting strength but, really, their audience can see they lack confidence.
As a leader, the responsibility is yours. You need to make decisions quickly. Aren’t you the boss because you know more than your team? How would it look – no, how would it feel – if your team knew more than you? What would that actually mean for your value in the company? Well, lots, actually.
There’s abundant research to tell us why debate with the boss is better.
Having people who see things differently and speak up is necessary for high performance.
In fact such people can generate 95 times more profit and increase speed and effectiveness of new business development.
When you encourage debate, and demonstrate that it’s OK to disagree, you will create psychological safety, which is fundamentally more crucial to how well teams innovate than anything else.
Besides all of that, it just feels rotten to know your opinion is only valued when it is offered in a way that maintains the status quo.
This is not to say you are running a democracy in your shop, nor that obedience is without value. Obedience keeps planes in the air and our food safe to eat. It keeps hospitals working and factories humming. We’re all programmed from birth to be obedient, and for good reason – without it, there’d be chaos.
And make no mistake, the boss should always take responsibility and make the decision.
It will be a higher-quality one, though, if the team panel-beats it.
So, how can leaders really bring out debate in their teams? First, do it yourself. Model the behaviour and ensure your team knows you’re doing it, thoughtfully and respectfully. There’ll be times when you don’t speak up with your own boss, and that may be wise. Ensure your team knows the difference.
Second, choose the right team. You don’t control the market. You don’t control who your own boss is. The one thing you do control is who you put in your team. Choose people with different expertise to you, look for courageous authenticity in the psychometric testing and check the references for how strongly a person debates.
Third, always insist on the truth. Ask your team to tell you what you’re missing. A little trick I used is to open with: “I’m going to tell you what I know and I want you to listen to it to respond with what I’m not seeing.” Then really listen, heeding Stephen Covey’s advice, as true today as when he first gave it: “The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.”
Thinking you have all the answers is hubristic.
Your people don’t see strength, they see insecurity. Humility, self-awareness and integrity are all on display when you insist on debate. Retain the right to go with your own decision, and if you do that, make sure you thank your team for having the courage to disagree with you. Then watch the talent line up to work for you.
