A McKinsey study indicates that the most significant impact occurs when you, as a leader, express your opinion first. When you begin a meeting with your opinion, team members find it psychologically challenging to disagree. This leads to the “yes-men” effect: the team hesitates to present risks or alternatives, thus decreasing the quality of decisions.

Reasoned communication skills involve more than self-assertion. They encompass the ability to steer conversations so that participants feel included and no one fears expressing dissent. Today's successful leaders foster an environment where all arguments are heard, especially during major decisions. An argument is not a random thought or rhetoric but a well-explained and substantiated viewpoint.

1. Ask Before You Speak

Allow team members to present their ideas and arguments first. Only then should you express your opinion. This keeps the discussion space open. As the aforementioned McKinsey study demonstrated, when a leader states their position first, their opinion anchors the entire discussion, suppressing disagreements and increasing the risk of costly errors. However, if you first ask for arguments and listen to various perspectives before making a decision, it helps avoid the “yes-men” effect, reveals diverse viewpoints, and reduces mistakes.

2. Structure the Discussion

Meetings and discussions shouldn't be a mere mix of ideas dominated by louder voices. Quality decisions are based on arguments. To ensure arguments are presented in a meeting, it's wise to establish some agreements. For instance, ensure everyone has a chance to speak, substantiate claims, and always present at least three alternative solutions before deciding. Such agreements help prevent clinging to a single idea and guide the team to think more broadly and substantively. Research shows that considering multiple alternatives reduces “choice blindness” and enhances decision quality.

3. Weigh and Decide

When different arguments begin to repeat and no new value is added, it's time to move forward. At this point, the criterion for making a choice becomes crucial. Without a clear “weighing scale,” discussions may drag on or fall into emotional traps. The criterion could be, for example, profit size, company mission, customer satisfaction, or another goal deemed most important in your organization. When it's time to decide, the leader can evaluate all presented arguments against this criterion and make a thoughtful choice. This way, team members understand the basis of the decision, and even those whose solution wasn't selected perceive the process as fair and transparent.

A culture of quality decisions doesn't arise by chance but through consciously created processes. When a leader listens first, structures the discussion, and then decides based on clear criteria, team members feel their input is valued, and decisions are well-considered. The best leader isn't the one who makes the best decisions but the one who initiates a reasoned discussion in the team, leading to the best decisions.

Margo Loor
Lead Trainer and Moderator
SpeakSmart

SpeakSmart is Estonia's leading training and consulting firm in argumentative communication skills, aiming to help individuals and teams communicate effectively, think critically, express their viewpoints, and make decisions. Over its 18 years of operation, the company has trained over 22,000 people.