Dissent is essential in leadership.
If you are not comfortable with differences of opinion in your team, then you cannot really call yourself a leader.
Leaders often shy away from open dialogue and differences of opinion because it feels uncomfortable to have someone not agree with you, even though diversity can only flourish if you are open to differences of opinion.
If you want to innovate, solve problems and create a safe and inclusive environment, then it's time to allow your people to express disagreement without fear of retaliation.
Timestamps and Takeaways
00:54 Dissent is required if you want to cut through groupthink and have high performance in your team.
01:23 The meaning of Dissent is to publicly disagree with an official opinion, a decision or set of beliefs.
01:58 Contrary to popular belief, if your team feels safe enough to express their opinions, this is a great thing because the opposite of that can stifle creativity, create fear, and give up voicing their concerns.
02:35 Allowing Dissent allows you as the leader to relax (you don't have to have all the answers) and gain different perspectives that you didn't have before.
03:37 The reason leaders are not comfortable with Dissent is because they have the mistaken belief that if someone doesn't agree with them, they are wrong, and there is this push back to prove that they are correct, instead of listening to what people are saying.
04:30 When you create a space where Dissent is ok, where other people's opinions are ok, it becomes a conversation.
06:56 What we noticed is that Dissent can often look personal, but it's usually not and the means of an individual or team expressing their opinions.
07:30 Having open dialogue can result in an agreeing on a consensus with your team which results in trust, psychological safety and high performance.
07:56 There will always be a few people who argue for the sake of it, but as you get more comfortable with dissenting opinions, you will quickly notice who has the right intentions and who doesn't.
09:07 If you listen to everyone's point of view, the noise will decrease because your team will not have to shout to be heard.
09:49 If you ignore and marginalise your team and don't allow people to express their opinions, you create a toxic environment where trust is eroded.
10:14 if you are not listening to someone, you force them around to our opinion or the company's views without facilitating a safe space to discuss things openly. The result with always a power struggle.
