Only naive leaders think and expect everyone to agree with. When your team or other leaders disagree with you it doesn’t mean there’s no unity. Unity is about believing in the same cause. On careful examination you will see that your disagreements are often centred on execution issues. Herewith are a few benefits of not being agreed with.
Critical
Having people agree with you all the time means you’re not likely to question anything in a critical way. When people don’t agree with a part of execution, it provides an opportunity for critical thinking in charting the way forward.
Thus, it is possible to be happy agreement in a sinking ship.
Options
When every voice is a consenting one less option will be presented. Leaders need to listen more to those they don’t agreed with. The members in your team that agree with you should be your best friends.
You already know what the ones who agree with you think. They present no opportunity to add more value. Better decisions are made when more options are tabled and explored. The more information you have the better decision-making is.
Innovation
Innovation is a result of the two-worded-question, “What if?” Leaders obsessed with consensus without questions have limited capacity, if at all, for innovation. Their leadership is stale. Dead, passionless activity is the norm under their watch.
When teams and colleagues are given the freedom of disagreeing, they open the door to exploring creative possibilities. It is in engaging each other that ideas evolve. Evolving ideas are the framework of innovation. Without them new ideas cannot facilitate definitive action.
Ego
Insecure leaders are prisoners of their own ego. Their wish to come across ‘know-it-alls’ fuels and eclipses their decisions and rationale. Leaders who allow others to agree with them keep their ego in check. They have healthy egos. Secure leaders know that they can be wrong.
Knowing they could be wrong, leaders who hear differing opinions aren’t afraid of being wrong. They’re not afraid of changing their minds and actions for the greater.
Naive, immature and insecure leaders have weak leadership. They miss out on benefits of critical thinking, innovation and will soon be obliterated by an unhealthy ego, as their ego demands everything focuses on them and not the cause.
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These are just a few benefits of not being agreed with. Your thoughts?
[image by Anna Vander Stel via Unsplash]