As a leader, you may have grown accustomed to a variety of conveniences when it comes to communication. You rarely get interrupted during meetings, your ad hoc Slack messages receive prompt responses, and your under-researched opinions influence people more than they really should. Unsurprisingly, not everyone enjoys these conveniences.
As a leader, you must be generous with your communication. Here are some ideas.
Don’t Push For A Decision Too Early
During discussions, do not prematurely push for a decision. To achieve genuine consensus, all thoughts need to be openly and thoroughly laid out first. Ideally, this is done without your influence. As a leader, your opinions carry extra weight. If you rush, you will inadvertently stifle your colleagues’ ability to fully share their thoughts.
Talk Less
Talk less. Actively listen.
Allow For Correction
Opinions are opinions. Create a culture that allows for correction.
- Preemptively give the OK for correction. Short phrases—”Please correct me if I’m wrong…“—make a difference.
- Facilitate feedback amongst individuals. One of your senior engineers feels strongly about X; you know another junior engineer disagrees. Use your position to allow the junior engineer to provide their feedback.
- Facilitate feedback for yourself. Directly engage individuals who have different views than you.
- Periodically remind people that every decision is a trade-off. Acknowledge and discuss these trade-offs.
Fix Interruptions With Callbacks
During a meeting, you notice that an engineer hasn’t been able to share their opinion as they are constantly being talked over by aggressive Staff engineers. Use your position and call back on them. Minimal effort for you creates a lot of space for them.
Set An Expectation For Response Times
For asynchronous communication, set an expectation for response time. Not all your messages need ASAP responses. A simple preface—”[Not Urgent]” or “[Please let me know by end of day]“—provides a much appreciated timing expectation for your requests.
Be Decisive, Offer Discussion
There will be times when a decision must be made before properly laying out everyone’s opinions. Your reports are going in circles trying to solidify a software design and you decide to step in to break a couple ties. When this happens, proactively engage in follow-up discussions—”We’re moving forward with {controversial decision} because of {valid reason}. I will invite our stakeholders to an office hours session next week to discuss any additional concerns.” Notice how this is different than, “Please reach out to me if you have any concerns.”
You can be decisive and thoughtful at the same time.
Share Your Context
As a leader, your job requires you to develop and maintain a vast amount of organizational context. You understand both political constraints and subtle technical challenges. This context has led you to your current role and it will remain an essential asset enabling you to function as a leader. Share this context (with discretion) with your colleagues.
Conclusion
As you grow in your career, be generous with your communication. A new hire experiences a meeting differently than how you experience a meeting. Use your position to build a culture where people have space to comfortably express their thoughts. Remind everyone that opinions are always opinions and that anyone can be corrected. Finally, when you have to be decisive, be thoughtful as well.