There’s a name for that drop in your stomach, that visceral feeling of unease, that gnawing stress - cognitive dissonance.
As human beings, consciously or unconsciously, we try to make decisions that are in line with our values. When we are asked to act in a different way, it can cause distress as we try to reconcile our actions and beliefs.
Managers are perhaps particularly prone to experiencing this tension because of the unique position they occupy in organisations. As a manager, you’re closer to the front line than leadership - but you still don’t necessarily have a tonne of sway or visibility when it comes to making major strategic decisions.
However, that doesn’t mean you’re powerless. Far from it. In this cheat sheet, we’ll be offering some insight to help you question and challenge leadership decision making from a place of confidence and clarity.
It’s important that you pause and assess when something is making you feel discombobulated, rather than challenging decisions from a place of raw emotion.
Whilst it’s important to feel our feelings rather than suppress them, when our fight or flight response is activated, we are less able to think rationally or creatively. Being curious about our emotions helps us understand our gut feelings and strengthens our ability to articulate alternative perspectives clearly.
It’s also worth assessing what you know about the decision maker. What’s their communication style? What is their end goal? What do they know about you and the experience and skills you’re using to shape your divergent perspective?
Finally, thinking deeply about your own context is important. You know your team, probably better than any executive. How will the decision you want to challenge substantively impact them? What could the unforeseen consequences be? How will this impact the bottom line?
Inevitably, you will not know the answer to every one of the above questions. However, starting from a place of curiosity can be a great way to challenge assumptions and open up dialogue.
Positioning your challenge in this way shows that you understand your organisation's goals and want to support leadership to reach them - you might just have an alternative way to get there.
Company vision and values can also provide valuable framing. By aligning your challenge with these governing principles and the collective interest, you can take the heat out of the conversation and make it feel less personal. If your company values explicitly encourage challenge, it can also be a good conversational cue to remind leaders that they should embrace divergent perspectives and seek to learn from them.
Think about data you can tap into and any social proof you can provide - for example, ‘our competitors have been working on X, so it feels like this could be worth exploring for us too to avoid falling behind’.
By providing a concrete, well-thought through plan, you’ll remove the need for senior leaders to fully rethink the approach themselves. At the very least, you’ll gain more information about whether their idea is currently just that, or whether the train has already left the station.
Tactfully asking your peers for their perspective on proposed changes and identifying potential allies can help you understand whether others have similar concerns.
You might want to allow 24 hours or so to pass before you reach out, to ensure that both you and your peers have had a bit of processing time and can talk constructively rather than just venting.Do: build coalition.
Challenging upwards can be nerve-wracking and delicate - but it’s a vital skill for any people leader. Good leaders are used to hearing new perspectives and questioning their own biases. Even if your challenge doesn’t fully land, there’s strength in staying true to your values and advocating for your team.
We think you’ll like these other related articles.
Join the list.
Every two weeks our community newsletter is released to spark curiosity about the world around you and challenge your thinking. Sound good?
