Pop quiz: Below are two ways to get one of your employees to do something challenging. Which is best?

Option 1: Explain how your leadership priorities and/or vision has changed, then tell them to shift their actions to support your new direction.

Option 2: Explain how your leadership priorities and/or vision has changed, then set aside time so that together you can work out how the employee can support the shift.

Did you catch it? There’s just ONE difference between these options; your active participation in helping the employee understand what to do differently.

It’s taking the time to go deep, to be thoughtful, to think about implications—not just primary implications, but secondary and tertiary implications—and then consider what to do differently.

The difference amounts to whether or not you take the time to finish the thought process.

It’s tempting to bark out orders and move on. I get it.

You’re busy, and the people on your team should be smart enough to figure out the implications on their own, right?

Well… maybe.

Or maybe not.

A lot depends on whether anyone, including you, has truly thought through the implications of the decisions you have made or the new direction you are taking the company. If you are expecting others to think in depth, then you should set the example and be willing to do the same.