“Empowering those around you to be heard and valued makes the difference between a leader who simply instructs and one who inspires,” writes Adena Friedman, President and CEO of Nasdaq. One aspect of effective leadership is empowering others by allowing them to voice their ideas for improving the organization. Directives and initiatives, however, also play a critical role in ensuring the organization moves forward successfully. Here are key questions to ask when deciding how to approach offering voice or giving directives:
- How timely is the decision? Anytime decisions need making in a timely manner, it’s challenging to gather significant insight from many other people in the organization. These decisions often need to be made with a small group of leadership in order to make the decision timely and continue pushing the organization forward.
- How many people does the decision impact? Key decisions often impact a variety of people throughout the organization. If the decision being made directly impacts a few key people, then it’s likely important to gather their insight and see potential solutions for the problem. Some decisions impact the entire company, so it can be beneficial to gather more input and see what ideas other people have around the topic.
- Which people does the decision impact? One aspect of decision making that really matters is analyzing which specific people the decision will impact. Sometimes organizations make decisions based on their lowest performing employees and eventually end up punishing their best employees. If the decision will support high-achievers by providing incentives, fairness, and motivation, then it’s a quality decision. It is worth the time to ask those people what they might prefer and gather feedback.
- Does the decision move the organization closer to its end goals? Employees in the organization don’t always understand all the details behind the decisions being made in the company. They may not see directly how the impact supports the bottom line or a larger aspect of the functionality of the organization. Great leaders make these ideas clear to people. Gathering feedback about certain ideas can give leaders insight to how they might approach the decision, but leaders know best and might need to simply implement the initiative to move the organization forward.
- Why are we choosing to provide voice rather than a directive? Many leaders get caught up in employees disliking a decision or the complaining that might happen because of it. If leaders fear that taking an initiative will receive complaints, it’s not always appropriate to allow voice in it. Many people take the path of least resistance, so even though the initiative is best for the organization, people will still not like it. Decide whether we’re taking an initiative or providing voice for the correct reasons.
Highly-effective leaders combine fostering empowerment with taking initiatives. The challenge for leaders is discerning when they allow for voice and when they provide a directive. The best leaders focus on balancing these in their organizations to meet at a place where people feel heard, but the organization also moves in a positive direction. Sometimes leaders need to make tough decisions that may not be popular among employees.
How do you discern whether to provide voice or give directive in leadership?