Chad Silverstein (Day 77: "Stand...") advises leaders to accept that decisions will upset some people and create friction; leadership is not about keeping everyone happy but about how decisions are made and communicated. He emphasizes self-awareness to read team signals, providing clarity when needed, being honest rather than placating, and taking a clear stand guided by vision and purpose.
Chapters
Boy, nothing could be more true than this day stand. Every leader, every decision they make, every decision is going to either upset some people or make some people happy. You're always going to have a little bit of both. And that's why it sucks being a leader. And you have to get comfortable with that. And you're going to create rub, you're going to create friction. And that's why the way you communicate change, way you tee it up and how you make your decisions says everything about you as a leader. It's not about making always the best decision. It's about how you make those decisions and how you communicate those decisions and just know and accept the fact that people are going to take things and hear things wherever they are. You're going to have new people that take it one way, veterans take it another way. You're going to have some decisions that impact people differently because either they're veterans or high performers or whatever, whatever. They're a class of people that apply for something that maybe another group doesn't apply for, whatever the case is. And having the awareness that every decision you make creates, the rub hopefully will set off some self awareness in you that you have to be able to tee into all those micro messages that your team is sending you. Not for you to change the way you're leading, but for you to kind of step in when necessary to either provide more clarity, more understanding, and be able to kind of clear the air with people who are still confused or upset about something. Your job is not to make sure they're not upset. You know, I used to always try to make sure that people walk away from my office not upset. My thought was, why would it make any sense for someone to leave my office upset about something and then they go back to work? They're not going to be really productive. But then I realized I wasn't being honest with them. I was telling them what they wanted to hear, what I wanted them to hear so that they were happy, and then figured they'd be happy and they'd be more productive. And it was just backwards. People need to hear the truth and you need to create friction when you make these decisions and understand that it's just going to do that. It's the result of you making decisions and you got to get comfortable with that and you got to take a stand. You know, there's a lot of leaders who try to keep both sides happy and you know, because they're kind of playing both sides, they end up doing a miserable job for everyone. Better to take a stand. Put a stake in the ground. Let people know where you stand. Be understanding to the other side, but let people know where you stand and why. And hopefully you're leading that with a vision that is something that people can respect. They may not agree, and they may not like you, but when they think about whatever it is that you're pursuing and why you're doing what you're doing, you know they can at least respect the fact that you've got your way, your highway of where you're going. And if it comes from a good, healthy place, your opus, your purpose, who can argue with that? And even when they can, who cares? You can't keep everyone happy, and you're going to rub people the wrong way. Accept it, take a stand, and do it with shooting your eye.
