Instead of Convincing Others, Make an Informed Choice

Last week was the first time I have heard of a Board of Directors firing a CEO because he “discouraged different points of view.” When asked by the North Carolina Utilities Commission why CEO Bill Johnson was ousted just 20 minutes after the completion of the $32 billion merger of Duke Energy and Progress Energy, Jim Rogers – the new CEO of the merged company – testified that the Board of Directors “felt [Johnson’s] style was autocratic and discouraged different points of view.”
 
This was a message for executive leaders to take heed: my-way-or-the-highway leadership is a thing of the past. Even if there were other reasons for firing Johnson, Rogers or the Board of Directors thought that “discouraging different points of view” was compelling enough testimony to explain the actions of the largest electric utility company in the US.
 
Most leaders recognize that autocratically decreeing decisions without getting input from others won’t get the results the organization needs.Yet these same leaders still believe it’s their job to convince others on their team, to get them to “buy in”, rather than encouraging people who have different views to speak up. Is that what you believe? If so, it’s no surprise since many of the books on our shelves tell us to get people on or off the bus, or that the definition of a leader is someone who has followers.
 
Yet consider the research that clearly shows how teams make better decisions when they pay more attention to information that uniquely comes from each individual, rather than just considering information that team members share in common. To get that unique information, people need to be encouraged to speak up with their differing views, rather than just “buying in”, so you can make a better decision – what we call an Informed Choice.
 
When you make an informed choice, you assume that other people have valuable information and that each of you will see things the others don’t. You consider differences in views as opportunities to learn – opportunities to come to the best decisions. You get all the information on the table to figure out how the pieces fit together.
 
When you make an informed choice instead of trying to convince others to agree with you, you not only increase the chance that a decision will work better for others – you increase the chance it will work better for you. And your board of directors.

Originally published July 2012