Not everything needs to be a consultation

Is consultation a good thing?

Often, yes (mais oui).

Consulting before you decide something can surface information you don't have, build buy-in, and reduce the risk of unintended consequences.

People are more likely to support a decision when they understand how it was made and feel their perspective was considered.

Sometimes you consult because you genuinely need input – whether on content, or for relationship reasons. Sometimes because the decision will materially affect others and involvement and process matters.

And sometimes because making the decision yourself feels – just, well, uncomfortable. Most of us want to be inclusive. We don’t want to be tyrannical. But we ARE leaders and part of the job is making decisions.

That’s where things can get muddy.

You send a relatively straightforward decision around for comment.

You ask everyone in the meeting what they think, even when only one or two people have the context to offer anything useful.

You ask for six views and then feel some obligation to somehow honour all six (exhausting)

Or you invite people to contribute to a decision you’ve effectively already made.

None of this is necessarily more inclusive. Sometimes it just makes things slower, fuzzier and can even result in people feeling more frustrated and less included than if you’d just gone ahead and decided the thing.

A few questions can help you get clearer...

• Have you been clear about what people’s input can and can’t influence? People get understandably annoyed when “consultation” turns out to mean “please endorse this” (similarly to how we don’t like it when “do you have any feedback” actually means “tell me how great I am”... but I digress).

• Do you genuinely need information you don’t currently have? Or would taking care in how you inform people of the decision be enough?

• Whose input is actually relevant? More voices don’t automatically produce a better decision.

• Are you consulting, or seeking permission? Those are not the same thing. If you know what the decision needs to be, and you know some people won’t like it, are you just kicking the can down the road? Or trying to divert accountability away from yourself?

If consultation has become a reflex for you, it’s worth examining where it’s helping and where it might be getting in the way.

If you’d like to work this through with a confidential sounding board – ahem, that’s me. Feel free to get in touch – and share this with someone you think may resonate.

Until next week,

Madeleine

I help accomplished professionals untangle difficult career questions so they can thrive in work and life.

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