Thoughtful Thursdays: Do you allow your team to have dialogue and debate?

Do you allow your team to have dialogue? Do you allow your team to debate? On this week’s #ThoughtfulThursdays episode, Lorenzo shares his thoughts on how dialogue and debate lead to development.Elizabeth Boyd LinkedInBuy Lorenzo's leadership book here:Vision, Clarity, Support: A Leadership Crash Course on the 3 Pillars of Success#HackingYourLeadership #StarkEngagementConsulting #[email protected]@starkengagement.comHacking Your Leadership WebsiteHacking Your Leadership InstagramLeadership Memes TwitterStark Engagement ConsultingLife Of LozoEpisode Transcript:On this episode, I want to talk about how dialogue and debate lead to development.I was recently talking with my team about the importance of dialogue while we were working through a strategy together. I expressed that dialogue is more than just conversation because it allows people in the room to not only hear others opinions but consider the ones that may challenge their current thought process or provide perspective that helps to make a different decision.  According to the internets, The definition of Dialogue is to take part in a conversation or discussion to resolve a problem.And the definition of a conversation is a talk, especially an informal one, between two or more people, in which news and ideas are exchanged.The difference between the two being about resolving a problem. This matters because I firmly believe that if you are empowering your team to work together to solve problems then you must give them the time and space to disagree, debate, listen to each other, debate some more until a solution is found that can be agreed upon and executed together with commitments from everyone.That. Is. Development. When you are developing people to become better leaders, the ability to teach them how to communicate their thoughts effectively, challenge others on ideas, and be open enough to change their mind are all critical skills that leaders need to sharpen to create and maintain healthy and positive work environments. I saw a post today about curiosity versus obedience by friend of the podcast Elizabeth Boyd. I will add a link to her LinkedIn account in the show notes.She says, and I quote;“The fundamental ingredient of leadership that has been neglected is a leader’s intellectual CURIOSITY to truly understand the business, the people they are supporting, and the clients they serve and how to make everyone's experience…better, memorable, enjoyable, enduring, and mutually beneficial.”What I hear in this post is that if you are not allowing your people to have dialogue to solve problems and debate each other AND you as their leader, you are killing their curiosity. And a lack of curiosity kills innovation and a lack of innovation kills a fun and productive work environment.Allow for Dialogue, Allow for Debate and allow those to be opportunities to better develop your people.Thanks for listening and talk to you all next week!