the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke

If you have followed the last couple of Musings you will see that I advocate effective communication between the leader and the team. The idea of sharing your thinking with your subordinates is alien to many, but it is beneficial in a number of ways.
First there is the issue of no plan lasting beyond first contact with the enemy as any good military commander will tell you. No matter how good your planning things will change at the front and if your front line supervision understands why you have issued your orders then they have a much better chance of adjusting their tactics towards delivering the right result. Knowing what you want is one thing, but understanding why you want it is much more useful.

Having a conversation with your team about objectives and tactics allows them to have their input and shows that you respect and trust them. If they can see that they will be much more likely to contribute good ideas and feel valued. Trust is mutual and if they can feel trusted then they will trust you better.

Talking things through and sharing the thinking behind your decisions is also good for developing your team, but it is also good for you. Allowing your subordinates to challenge you helps to ensure that you have got it right and, if not, exposing any flaw in your argument allows it to be corrected before your team have to implement it.

There are still too many leaders who are afraid to share and their lack of courage shows a lack of confidence in their decisions. Applying the JFDI principle (see last week) is really little more than an act of cowardice.