One paradox we face as leaders is how difficult decisions get made effectively with our teams – we know it’s helpful to gather perspectives to inform better decisions and yet we are also supposed to be bold and act decisively – so which is it? I think the answer is in the choices we make between these two polarities to fit the situation at hand.

Imagine if we could harness all the lost energy by eliminating the times when people in our teams said ‘yes’ but really thought ‘well maybe’ or ‘nope, not doing that’. That is a dirty yes. It’s is an invisible process that drags down the speed of every organization. Not only that, when this happens we lose mental energy, get frustrated with each other and erode trust – all the things opposite to what we want in great leadership.

This is especially relevant right now as many organizations are renewing their business strategy and looking for buy-in to new priorities. Exposing the dirty yes takes some courage – what if I get disagreement? How will I convince everyone? This is a great opportunity to practice ways to eliminate the dirty yes – success of those new initiatives is at stake.

So what does a dirty yes look like?