Explaining a decision you did not make: what, why, and what you think.
The Engage item is “management can be relied on to act in the interests of its employees”. For your team, you are the management they see. How a decision from above lands depends on how you carry it.
On this page
What was decided, why you think so, what you make of it; disagree once then carry it; take one thing up a quarter and bring back the answer.
Decisions arrive from upstairs. The manager who forwards the email has done nothing; the manager who says “nothing to do with me” has done worse. The team needs three things from you: what was decided, why you think it was decided, and what you make of it. All three, honestly, every time.
The three parts
- What. The decision, plainly, before the rumour gets there.
- Why. Your best understanding of the reason. If you do not know, say so and find out; do not invent one.
- What you think. If you agree, say so. If you argued for something else, say that, once: “I argued for X. This is what was decided, and here is how we make it work.” Then carry it. People can take a manager who disagrees; they cannot take one who undermines.
Take one thing up, and bring the answer back
Once a quarter, pick one thing the team has asked for that is not yours to give. Take it to whoever can give it. Then come back with the answer, whatever it is: what you asked for, what was said, what next. A no with a reason is an answer. Silence is not, and silence after a request reads as indifference.
Once a quarter, one thing the organisation did well
Something true and specific, outside your own team, said briefly. If all the team ever hears from you about the organisation is what is wrong, they will believe it, and cynicism is contagious. So is grounded confidence. Balance is credibility.
Write it down
The decisions you explained, the questions you took upwards, the answers you brought back.
The clearest thirty minutes in your week.
Send us your last engagement survey and we’ll show you what it’s missing – no charge, no deck, no obligation. Or start with a pilot or a 30-minute conversation.