Every day in your business life, you are faced with solving complex problems. How should you construct the offer for a key customer proposal? What changes do you need to make to your organizational structure? How should you prepare your messaging for that important senior management presentation or pitch?
As the leader, you have a choice. You can use your experience and judgment to come up with a rational solution, or you can involve others to develop a course of action. The way you approach these problems says a lot about you as a leader. The path you take in these situations is at the crossroads of the question of whether you are a manager or a leader.
In my experience, I’ve seen one primary distinction between managers and leaders in these situations. It is the comfort that those in leadership roles have with admitting that they don’t know the answer. As the manager, whether you have risen through the ranks or taken over leadership of a team by joining a new firm, there are certain expectations of you. Your team members may look up to you as the subject matter expert across a wide range of disciplines. You are their go to person to answer questions and break disputes on a day to day basis. Your colleagues may see you as a person they can ally with on a given situation based on your functional role in the organization. Your senior leadership wants to count on you as the person who makes sound decisions and executes the strategy they have adopted. In many cases, people around you simply expect you to have the answers. The right ones.
The reality is though, most complex problems are bigger than you. They require inputs from a wide range of sources. You rarely have enough initial information to make the best decision. If you did, then decisions would be easy.
The modern leader is comfortable with the phrase “I don’t know”. Those words say a lot about who you are as a leader. About the personal risks you are willing to take to achieve the best outcome. About how you value the knowledge and insights of those around you. About how serious you are about arriving at the decisions that will create success.
When you say “I don’t know”, you invite others in. You open the door for others to provide input, information, ideas. You create a space for collaboration. A space where the biggest and best ideas can get into the room.
Be careful. “I don’t know” can’t come across as “I don’t have a clue”. You are expected to possess the requisite level of expertise on your subject. But, a leader isn’t somebody who knows everything. The truly effective leader is the person who can make sure the appropriate data are considered while leading the team to make good decisions and execute the business plan. This is the difference between allowing input from others, and valuing that input. Placing a value on the contributions of others that will make your chosen course better than it could otherwise have been.
The next time you are trying to solve a complex business question, try saying “I don’t know…what do you think”? Explore. Don’t just manage the group to the place you think it should go. You’ll have more people vested in the outcome. You’ll begin developing a network of people who want to work with you. And you’ll produce greater success together.
Lead well.
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