The Metiss Group's Blog

We are naturally attracted to people who agree with us and confirm what we already believe. It makes us feel better and less stressed.  However, disagreement, not consensus, leads to better decisions. Unfortunately, few leaders are comfortable seeking out differing opinions.

People with different behavior styles approach problems and offer solutions from different perspectives.  Your forceful, aggressive team members will give strong, no-nonsense answers.  The fun loving, high energy team members will offer optimistic, conflict free approaches.  Easy going, steady team members like logical and empathetic solutions.  And the rigid, compliant types prefer analytical, data driven options.

First, take time to evaluate how your team typically solves problems and use some psychometric assessments for additional insight. When you understand everyone’s strengths and approaches, encourage the team to challenge you from those different perspectives.  Once given permission and inspiration to contribute using new solutions in this way, the team will naturally make better decisions.

Empower your team to challenge your positions by using their strengths, and you’ll experience more success.

This entry was posted on January 13, 2014 at 5:00 am and is filed under Leadership, Performance Acceleration. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.