I had a meeting with a high ranking executive of a Fortune 50 company recently. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite high enough! He and I agreed they had a tremendous opportunity to save hundreds of thousands of dollars and that I was the perfect choice to make it happen quickly.
His boss, however, thought they could do it without outside help, despite no track record and no relevant expertise.
This is when I realized they had an even bigger problem!
High ranking executives in multi-billion dollar companies should be willing and able to push back when an obvious opportunity is denied with little scrutiny. Of course, the same can be said of any management team, regardless of the size of the organization.
No leader needs ‘yes’ men. Every team needs healthy debate. If that debate isn’t occurring, your organization suffers from one or more of the following:
- Employees don’t dare stick their necks out
- Employees don’t care enough to stick there necks out
- Employees aren’t aware enough to know when to stick their necks out
A healthy organization debates and unites. An unhealthy organization sits quietly in the back of the bus where they can snicker, console, and wait for a change in drivers.
Does your team push back?
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