When a decision affects people, “Because I said so” usually isn’t enough. That doesn’t mean everybody gets a vote, and it doesn’t mean every decision has to be defended forever.
Sometimes I’ve listened, made the call, and we’re moving on. I can still tell people what I was trying to accomplish and why I chose that option. If I don’t, people fill in the blank themselves.
A new procedure must be punishment for somebody. A change in enforcement must be about a complaint. The chief must have some hidden reason. Sometimes the explanation people invent is a lot more interesting than the real one, and that’s partly on me if I gave them nothing else to work with.
I’ve been on both sides of this. I’ve looked at somebody else’s decision and wondered how they came up with it. Then I became responsible for making decisions with information I couldn’t share, limited options, or several answers I didn’t particularly like.
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It didn’t teach me that the boss is always right. It taught me that the person looking at the final decision may only be seeing part of what went into it. So when I can, I try to explain the problem I was trying to solve, why I didn’t choose another option, and what I expect the decision to accomplish.
People may hear all of that and still think I made the wrong call. Fine. At least we’re disagreeing about the decision I actually made, not one they had to invent.
Sometimes I can’t share the details. Personnel matters, active investigations, and privacy concerns put real limits on what I can say. But “I can’t tell you everything” and “I can’t tell you anything” aren’t always the same thing.
Usually I can explain some of the reasoning without sharing information that should stay private. That helps me too. If I can’t put into words what problem I was trying to solve or why this option made sense, I may need to think it through again.
And if the decision turns out to be wrong, explaining it doesn’t mean I have to defend it forever. New information can change the answer. I’d rather explain what I believed at the time, say what I learned, and pivot than protect a bad decision just because I already announced it.
People aren’t going to agree with every decision I make, and I don’t expect them to. I just don’t want them guessing what I was thinking when I could tell them.
