Agreeing to disagree and making it work!

#leadershipandmanagement #leadershipqualities

How can you implement a choice that senior leaders in your organization made that you don't agree with?

Start by resisting the urge to tell your peers and supervisees that you are not sure this is the best course of action. The success of your organization is your responsibility. If you sabotage the choice, whether on purpose or accidentally, you would not be doing that duty.

Then consider whether you have faith in senior management. Put yourself in the position of someone who fervently believes in the choice that was made. Consider the rationale behind this decision.

Look for facts or insights that might have escaped your attention previously and would make this choice a good one. While you are introspecting and reviewing, be clear about all of your objections as well. This will help you foresee any challenges you could encounter when putting the decision into action. Once you have come to terms with the logic behind this choice, share it with your team. Sharing with the team is very important however delay till you have become convinced yourself. After all, your team's success largely depends on how strongly they believe in it.

Being a middle manager may be extremely frustrating since senior executives frequently make decisions that you would not have made if it were up to you. You may participate in the decision-making process occasionally, but not always. You are now in charge of seeing that the strategy is followed out, either way.

To persuade yourself of the decision, put yourself in the shoes of someone who strongly believes in the decision. Consider why someone would make this decision. Look for factors you may not have considered previously that would make this a good option.

You will be ready to start working with your team to carry out the new plan once you have figured out why this decision was reasonable.

This method benefits you and your team in two ways.

To begin, how much effort your team puts into making a plan succeed is largely determined by how much they believe in it. If you communicate a new course of action halfheartedly, you will receive less than maximum effort because people will sense that you are uninterested in the task at hand.