The Little Black Book for Managers: How to Maximize Your Key Management Moments of Power

15

Their Reactions

15.1 Don't improve the plan if it loses their commitment

When you are asked to critique a piece of work or a plan, either written or verbal, I suspect that there is a strong tendency for you to feel the need to add value. After all, you are older and wiser! You make a suggestion here and another there; you genuinely want to improve the plan and demonstrate both your experience and expertise.

But, and yes it's a very big but, if the changes you suggest are anything but very minor, you run the risk of changing “their plan” to “your plan”. As a result, the ownership and pride your team members felt in their work before your contributions may have reduced, or worse, evaporated all together. If the changes are very minor, do you ...