When You Strongly Disagree, Show Your Work

Showing the steps used to reach a conclusion not only explains your reasoning but fully demonstrates your skill. 

Those who are suspicious about how you reached the outcome or whether you might have taken a shortcut are reassured when they can examine the steps you used to get there. This is equally true for leaders and team members when they strongly disagree with a position favored by others. 

Just as we are made more comfortable in the end product produced by a mathematician who shows their calculations, an artist who shares their preliminary drawings, or a mechanic who produces a faulty part before replacing it, we appreciate it when those who disagree show us precisely why. 

By articulating the thinking they used to reach an alternate answer, leaders and team members show themselves to be prepared, objective, and reasonable. 

Leaders and team members who offer the many details and facts about why they disagree are better able to convince others that they have been thoughtful about the issue and have reached a considered view. There is never a perception of haste when we show our work. In the eyes of those who have their views negated, how a leader reaches an alternate conclusion can be as important as the conclusion itself.  

When the best leaders know they are likely to strongly disagree with a position or proposal that others are highly vested in, they go to great lengths to illustrate the reasoning process they employed to reach a different point of view. 

They show their work by patiently explaining the facts and data they have relied on, the steps and reasoning they went through, and the options they explored before reaching their conclusion. This includes considering the proposed answer favored by others.

By showing their work, leaders and team members are afforded a credibility and positive intent that reduces the friction inherent when negating an opposing view. While team members in opposition may not become supportive of the leader’s view, they often come to respect the process the leader followed so much that they give up the need to dig in and become resistant. 

When leaders know they will negate a position or proposal others have spent considerable time and effort to reach, they will be more sensitive in how they argue against it while proposing a competing view.

Good leaders recognize the importance of showing others why they feel so strongly about a different path. In the act of showing their work, leaders demonstrate not only how they think but also who they are as colleagues.