When does 'reasonable' challenge become 'unreasonable challenge'

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Ahoy,

Let me start by saying this:

Over the last few weeks I’ve been collecting a bit of data on whether or not I should keep pushing out the Wednesday scenarios.

I’ve received a great amount of feedback from you guys with an overwhelming majority asking to keep the Wednesday scenarios.

I’m really glad to see that you guys really are getting something from them.

To that end, for now, we will keep pushing out the Wednesday editions and the Monday editions.

However, this does also mean we have come to the end of our premium edition.

That means as of this week, you will no longer be able to subscribe to Silent Leadership Premium, and I will no longer be publishing a Friday edition.

Thank you to those of you that have subscribed in the past.

Your support has been incredibly appreciated!

I hope one day to be able to get back to delivering that kind of content, but for now we will have to hit pause.

That’s it for updates, if you have any questions, please do feel free to get in touch and I’ll do my best to answer all your questions.

Until then, lets dive into todays topic.

We had this idea in the Navy which was called “reasonable challenge”.

Essentially the thought process is this:

• People can make wrong decisions

• People can miss bits of information

• We need a way of making people feel comfortable challenging decisions

• Because they may actually know more than the leader making the decision

It’s actually pretty sound logic.

However, the difficult part is in the word “reasonable”.

Depending on who you ask, that work can mean many different things.

And depending on the situation, reasonable cam mean many things.

This opens up problems from two directions:

1. People misjudge “reasonable” when challenging a decision and go over the top!

2. Leaders categorise any challenge against them as “unreasonable” and create a culture where there is not challenge.

So when is it okay to talk back?

When is it okay to challenge a decision made by leadership?

And even if your organisation doesn’t have a standing on reasonable challenge, can you still do it?

There are obviously a tonne of nuance to this question (my classic get out of jail free card right there…), but I’ll try and break some of it down.

My first, and maybe only, clear cut rule is this: If you genuinely believe that a decision will impact the safety of yourself or others, you not only are allowed to speak up, you are morally required to speak up!

I can think of any nuance that would counteract that statement.

Now in my eyes, its always okay to make one challenge against a decision, and then you have to judge the characters your communicating with to see if you go again.

Important note here, that first challenge must be a respectful one.

You cant start shouting and screaming about it from the bat. Nobody will take that seriously and you’ll definitely not get your way.

Remember, your strongest weapon here is always to ensure you’ve built good relationships.

Then a challenge becomes a discussion, not a conflict.

Backing down from a second challenge doesn’t mean you don’t strongly believe that you have the right answer.

It can just mean that you value building a relationship with that person over you being right this one time.

Leadership and life at work in general is a strategic game not a tactical one.

Think long term success over small wins.

So to bring it back to our initial question, when does a “reasonable challenge” become an “unreasonable challenge”?

To put a very basic answer over a very complicated an nuanced question: when the challenge sacrifices the strategic goal for the short term win.

When the challenge sacrifices relationships for the sake of the short term win.

This is one of those really tough situations where you have to check your ego…

And trust me, I’m fully aware how frustrating that can be!

I’m not going to go into details, but trust me… I know!

I bet there are a lot of nuanced questions that come out of that one, so feel free to get in touch and I’ll see if I can provide a bit more targeted guidance for your situation.

And as always, have a great day.

Reece