The head of an organization I once worked for, when responding no to a request, would never give the reasons for denying the request. It was always, “because I said so” or would just ignore me when I asked for a reason.  I was left in the difficult position of explaining to those that reported to me the reason for the denial. Most times I knew the reason for the denial as it was usually a request that went against organization protocol.  However, when a request or idea was brought forth and I was expected to run it “up the flagpole” and when that request was denied, it left me in the uncomfortable position of advising the team the reasons for the denial. It made us in upper management look unresponsive and uncaring to the needs and ideas of the people that reported to us.  I read a study by Mike Murphy, Founder of LeadershipIQ.com called “How To Build Trust In The Workplace,” he surveyed more than 7,000 people all about why people do, or don’t, trust their leaders. He discovered that a major driver of employees’ trust in their leader was whether they saw their boss as someone who “makes smart decisions.” 

In his article, “This Common Mistake Makes Leaders Look Like Bad Decision-Makers”

Mike stated, “for employees to see us as someone who “makes smart decisions,” we have to communicate transparently how we made our decisions. And that’s where many leaders make a big mistake.

Too many leaders think that they need to exude an air of unshakeable confidence and that offering any explanations or rationale behind their decisions will undermine their seeming invincibility. However, nothing could be further from the truth

If we want our employees to see us as smart decision-makers, we have to transparently share the data and input we used to make our decisions. 

Employees like to know that when we make a decision, we’re giving it serious thought; that we’re making decisions based on data as opposed to flying by the seat of our pants. They like to know that we conducted some analysis and used data. That there were some numbers involved. 

Especially in today’s world, using data makes us look significantly more credible. Even if the outcome of our decision doesn’t turn out perfectly, if we’ve based that decision on data and analysis, our decision-making ability doesn’t look faulty. Our leadership credibility remains largely intact if we share with our employees the data and analysis we used to make our decisions.

Of course, the reverse is also true. If we look like the person who doesn’t care about data, like we’re willfully ignorant of the available data, research and analysis, it’s awfully hard for employees to trust our decision-making ability.