Should Entrepreneurial Leaders Manage by Consensus?

We saw a great study about Millennials [PDF] and how they would run the business of tomorrow. The researchers had two teams create a model company.

Neither of them selected a CEO. They chose to run the company by consensus.

No one person was in charge; ideas were. The best ideas ruled.

Great concept. Too bad it won’t work.

Entrepreneurial leaders should not manage by consensus.

Should you get your people involved in every way you can? Yes.

Do you want to listen to your people’s ideas? Of course.

Should every person in your organization have a voice? Absolutely.

But management by consensus is no different than management by committee. The name may have changed but the results remain the same.

In the worst case, decisions don’t get made. So the organization flounders.

Only slightly better – when decisions do get made, it takes longer. It’s the death knell in today’s fast-changing world.

The buck has to stop somewhere. All the kumbaya has to end. Someone has to take all the information and make a decision.

The process can be democratic but the decision-making can’t.

Your people should be given the opportunity to offer their input. They should know it is heard. It may even be acted upon. When it is, they should be given recognition.

Entrepreneurial leaders should focus less on reaching consensus. It takes too long.

Focus more on building consensus. Help your people understand the “why” behind the things you do in your organization. It leads to BIGG success!

How do you build consensus?

Image in this post from stock. xchng