Leadership experts believe that an effective leader should be open to dissent or differing opinions. Jim Collins, for example, said the following in Good to Great:

“Leadership is about vision – but it is equally important to create a climate where truth is heard and brutal facts are confronted.”

In other words, a good leader is one who will create a workplace environment where employees feel free to disagree, say what they think, or push back on specific ideas or initiatives. Such a practice, it is believed, helps to create an environment of transparency, openness, and trust.

Which sounds great. Right up until the time the leader’s ideas or opinions are actually questioned. As it turns out, there is a bit of difference between talking about disagreement and actually having someone question your decisions. Those in charge often tend to perceive dissent or disagreement as disrespectful. Or argumentative. Or completely inappropriate (“Perhaps you should get more than two years of experience before you start criticizing my decisions!”) More than a few times, I have seen leaders get irritated, even angry, when an employee offers resistance or challenges the boss’s ideas. Even if they have been encouraged to do exactly that.

This doesn’t mean that Collins is off-base. It just means that this idea is a little more difficult than one might suppose. To successfully create an environment where the “brutal facts are confronted” requires much more than a simple edict by the boss (“I want you guys to challenge me!”). It requires a long-term investment in the manager-employee relationship, because people will typically disagree with people they don’t know at all (and don’t care if they see again), or with people whom they feel comfortable offering their own opinions. It takes a strong relationship to feel comfortable enough to offer a conflicting idea, especially if the person you are contradicting is the boss.

“You Can’t Handle the Truth”

A Few Good Men. Great movie. Nicholson’s famous line has been used and re-used in every conceivable part of our society, and it definitely applies to the workplace. Quite often, managers simply can’t handle the truth. There are, in fact, at least three things that can derail this idea of “creat[ing] a climate where truth is heard”: 1) A lack of maturity in the boss, 2) A lack of trust between the boss and employees, and 3) A failure to understand the motives of employees.

First, an immature boss can react completely wrong to an employee who offers a contradictory opinion, and that will be the end of that. Want proof? Suggest to your employees that they need to challenge your thinking. When they do, get irritated. Roll your eyes. Throw out a couple of sarcastic comments to show them who’s boss. Argue your point – hard – without trying to understand their perspectives. It won’t take more than once or twice to shut down any opposition you encounter.

Second, no employee is likely to challenge a boss that is not trusted. A lack of trust is the invisible enemy of a high-performance workplace, and it is often created by little things we fail to pay attention to. Failure to follow-through. Lack of consistency. Poor decision-making. Selfishness. Inadequate communication. In the absence of trust, very few people will venture out onto a limb to disagree with the boss.

Third, in the right environment, people may actually be willing to offer contrary ideas, but the boss still needs to understand the context of the disagreement. Sometimes dissent is simply resistance to needed change. Sometimes dissent is a negative response to new responsibilities. Sometimes dissent may reflect a lack of understanding of the bigger picture. When employees push back against your ideas or current workplace practices, it makes a world of difference to know whether the employee is presenting a plausible alternative or simply lobbying to avoid something he or she doesn’t care to do.

So, it takes a special kind of leader to encourage dissent. A leader who is competent, yet willing to learn. Confident, yet willing to listen. Strong-willed, yet humble. Which, by some coincidence, is exactly the kind of leader employees love to work for. A recent Washington Post article cites research by noted psychologist Robert Hogan with regard to leadership:

“According to Hogan’s research, followers want four things: integrity, confidence, decision-making and clarity. But just as important is what followers don’t want: irritability, moodiness, untrustworthiness, indec­i­sive­­­ness, needless micro-management and excessive authority. They perceive these things as incompetent, and pretty soon the leveling mechanism kicks in and there is a subtle rebellion.”

If you want to benefit from your employees ideas and perspectives, start by creating the right environment. Get to know your people. Set clear expectations. Follow through. Spend more time asking questions than showing them what you know. Something will begin to happen. Once employees perceive you as competent, fair, and willing to listen, you won’t have to ask your people to offer up new ideas – they just will.

Tagged as: Culture, Feedback, Listening, Self-awareness, trust, Workplace

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