One significant theme in responses to this month's column suggested that there is a role for varying degrees of "buy-in" and "groupthink" in effective leadership. The message seems to be that leaders should to some degree foster both, although there was a general rejection of the term "groupthink" in favor of "consensus." As Charles Cullinane put it, "Consensus ensures everybody is going in the same direction, but I feel groupthink ensures everybody is going in the same circle."
Sharika Kaul believes that a CEO needs three types of people: 1) those who "will never agree with the CEO and are always in the minority," 2) those who help "clean up the decision-making process," and 3) "true 'yes men' ... [who] get the job done." Cheryl Price suggests that in a decision-making process, "It all comes down to being an approachable leader." But "once a decision is made ... public criticism of that particular decision should be actively discouraged ... ." As Ina Ferber put it, " it is important to avoid groupthink during a decision-making process ... [integrate] as many views as possible ... and then get the buy in for the execution process." Anshu Vats expressed this view a bit differently when he said, "Groupthink is heavily discouraged in the companies where the leaders lead from behind. ... This style does produce results if done correctly with strong doers at the senior levels of management."
Advice to leaders in formulating decisions was provided by Keith Pinto, who opined that "Encouraging mavericks, risk takers, and soul searching questions is part of the chaos that leaders need to face to find meaning from ambiguity." As John van Wyk said, "It is also the case that ... [the truly successful leader] ... has the courage to hold close even the fiercest critics." Gad Gasaatura suggested the use of the "name optional approach" to encourage contrarians to express views.
On the other hand, several others suggested pointers for those who would provide the contrary views that are so important to an effective decision-making (vs. implementation) process. One was Bob Nemens. As he commented: "While you can never eliminate ego [in a leader you are trying to influence], you can learn to be multilingual in expressing an idea." One anonymous respondent resolved that "If I am not one already, I think I will aspire to be the office fool ..."
All of this suggests that successful leaders need a fine sensitivity for times when various modes of thinking and action are most appropriate: listening and the collection of ideas and contrary opinions in the decision-making process followed by consensus, communication, and group action during the implementation stages. Why is it that leaders often fail to make these distinctions? Is it ego, the inability to assume different roles for different needs, or some other reasons? What do you think?