The Power of Uncertainty

Are you training your teams not to think?

Is it ok for a leader to show uncertainty or to expect others to come up with answers?  Whether you’re being asked the questions yourself or you’re the one asking, how often is “I don’t know” an acceptable response?

Too often leaders and their teams treat uncertainty or not immediately having the solutions as a failure.  As something that speaks poorly of a person’s credibility or competence.  In an era where information is constantly at our fingertips and you’re only ever one YouTube video away from becoming an expert in something new, we continue to build up the expectation in each other that we have the answers.  And we blur the lines between answering confidently and answering with substance.

This is where I feel compelled to say – there is value in being comfortable with not having (or giving) every answer.  There is also power in admitting what you don’t know. And layering these mindsets into your leadership style can provide fertile ground for team building and collaboration.

Before diving in further, I do want to recognize the pressure that comes along with leading.  There are (and always will be) certain things you are expected to know when you’re in charge.  There will be moments when you and you alone are responsible for coming up with a solution or a concrete plan.  And, yes, sometimes your credibility as a leader will be linked to that responsibility.  After all, heavy is the head.

The problems come when your team becomes overly reliant on you having all the answers all the time.  When you are the only one in your organization expected to handle the questions and challenges that arise, you are playing with a ticking time bomb.  Not only will it be hard to avoid becoming a bottleneck, you will experience the two-punch combination of feeling increasingly burnt out while also witnessing a dwindling problem-solving skillset in your team.  So, what do you do?

For starters, it is valuable to put some of the responsibility for problem-solving back on your team.  It is important for people within your business to be familiar with the challenges your organization is facing and to recognize that they too have a role in finding solutions. 

As with so many things, the ability to operate with this dynamic in place relies on trust.  It relies on your team members trusting you and your desire or willingness to support them.  At the same time, you need to be able to trust their ability to get to certain answers independently. And to execute the solutions that come next.  If people operate that way, a response that starts with “I’m not sure, what do you think” can create collaboration and improve multiple skillsets within your team. 

The best part is that this is a positive feedback cycle.  Assuming there is even a wee bit of trust already in your team – having them tackle a question where the answer is not immediately clear reinforces that it’s something they need to work through together.  Also, when you demonstrate humility as a leader by admitting what you don’t know, it shows your team members it's ok to do the same. And provides opportunities for each of them to bring their unique knowledge forward, building camaraderie and harnessing the power of “more heads are better than one.”

Unfortunately, the dark side of this path is also a positive feedback cycle.  Saying “it’s just quicker if I do this myself, I’ll teach you next time (…and then not teaching them next time…) leads down the slippery slope of your team becoming overly reliant on you to figure everything out.  When you don’t have the patience or energy for the fallout of team members making mistakes, or when your desire for things to be done the way you would do them outstrips your willingness to let go, it kneecaps the growth of your team.  Over time it teaches people that they don’t need to (or can’t) decide much on their own because, what’s the point.  Their desire to take initiative and independently problem-solve has been extinguished.

Now that is not a note to end on.  And while it’s important to remember that being the gatekeeper of all answers will lead to a less confident team and burnt-out leadership, there are opportunities to avoid this. 

It isn't that leaders need to stop answering questions full stop. That’s part of the gig. The opportunity that exists for true growth, however, is to create an environment that actually teaches people how to think critically and answer certain questions for themselves.

A key place to start, practically speaking, is mentally preparing yourself and your team for the reality that things won’t always go to plan.  And then, putting structures in place to help people to learn the available lessons from taking a leap that didn’t work out.  Obviously, it is important to be choosy about when and to what degree failure is ok – you don’t throw a new hire at a problem that has significant ramifications for your business’ well-being.  But, for a team to function at its highest level, there has to be room to crack some eggs in the making of the omelet. 

To take this a step further, it is important to emphasize a mindset in your team that outcomes are not always evidence of decision quality.  You can make all the right management decisions and have things not work out – plant in the right window, choose the right hybrid and seeding rate, and still get rocked by weather.  And, sometimes, you make questionable decisions and get lucky.  What is important is recognizing and reinforcing process over outcome, and then teaching people on your team to do the same. 

Train people to recognize what they can control and what they cannot. And how to learn from all outcomes regardless of whether they worked out or didn’t.  You might not know whether that expansion you’re planning will be a rousing success or what surprises await, but if you proactively discuss potential pitfalls and work as a team to identify what assumptions you’re making today, you will be able to correct your course on the fly when things inevitably change down the road.

Building this type of critical thinking into your team is what springboards them to new heights.  Sometimes a leader has to have the answers and that is ok.  But it isn’t a leader’s job to have every answer.  It is their job to build an organization that collectively creates a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

For more insights into building critical thinking skills in your team, contact us at farmforwardstrategies@gmail.com or click below!