It is important to acknowledge the frustration people may be feeling. You should even share your own. But you also can’t let people linger to the point that it becomes debilitating. Instead you can share the process that led to the decision. You retain agency by making your team the owner of the change.

Only when your team feels agency can they work effectively. Only once they trust you will the follow you. Only once you commit can you truly lead.

Source: How Not to Disagree

I get where Boz is coming from. However, this only applies if you put on blinders that this applies where “management” is one monolithic layer and the person Boz addresses has a team under them.

I want to steelman Boz’ argument first: what he is suggesting - not to have the victim mindset - is spot on. This is the classic - disagree and commit - made famous by Amazon. As an ex-Amazonian, I get the reason why Boz is going there.

However, disagree and commit ONLY works if the management itself is trustworthy. Every time management pushes the “commit” lever without giving the “disagree” side of it enough leverage, whether we like it or not, management / leadership loses credibility.

There are only two paths: a) management is right and then the team and the team leader can be lauded for disagreeing and committing; b) the second path is where the direction / decision leads to either neutral / negative results. In this case, management / leadership lose trust with that entire team that’s been forced to commit.

Worse, if they don’t admit their role in pushing that team, trust is forever broken.

P.S. This is why being Clueless is the worst place to be and it should NEVER be an end state for a career.