10 Ways to Stand Up for Your Great Idea
Your idea got shot down. Give up, play safe, or push forward?
Courage and boldness create your future.
Cowardice solidifies your past.
Leaders don’t give up quickly.
Boldly advocate.
Courageously stand up.
Tenaciously push forward.
How to stand up for your ideas:
Courage and boldness don’t have to be rude, irritating, and adversarial.
Jerks aren’t courageous they’re fearful.
- Build alliances. Boldly support the ideas of others as much as you support your own. Stand with others if you expect them to stand with you.
- Forget defending. Adversarial relationships emerge during defensive conversations. You defend and they shoot down. It’s lose – lose.
- Explore. Defending pushes away; exploring invites in. “I’d like to explore an alternative outreach program. What if …”
- Choose private first. Don’t put people on the spot in front of colleagues. Introduce and explore ideas in one-on-one conversations.
- Align with current circumstances and organizational values. When values collide, conversations move from pros and cons to who’s right and who’s wrong.
- Be firm and nice. Weakness gets angry when it doesn’t get its way.
- Listen if you want to be heard. Don’t dismiss counter-points, say, “Good point,” instead. Go slow to go fast. Patience is courage not cowardice.
- Suggest pilot programs. Say, “I’d like to test this in our marketing department,” for example. All or nothing often ends up with nothing. A small piece of pie is better than no piece.
- Ask, “What are the benefits of staying the same?”
- Ask, “What are the dangers of staying the same?”
Bonus: Never make your ideas about you. Always pursue what’s best for your organization.
Successful leaders find reasons to step forward,
not stay the same.
Warning:
New ideas meet opposition. You’ll hear reasons it won’t work before reasons it will. Listen and understand, but don’t play dead.
How can leaders stand up for their ideas without unnecessarily pushing others down?
What strategies work well for exploring innovative concepts?
It’s always easier to shoot down than to build up. The real courage comes from digging deeper to a seemingly bad idea, and finding the building blocks of a great one.
So, leaders ask, “What is useful in this idea?” Rather than just tossing the baby out with the bath water… Nice.
I am a Paradigm Shifter.
Want to warn all of you, it is ALOT harder than it sounds. Lol
It is nothing more than ideas like Dan is talking about. What he says in this post is most excellent by the way. I suggest you follow his advice.
Also want y’all to know when you know you are right in your gut, stick with it. No matter what!
Truth goes through 3 distinct stages. Know this and adjust accordingly and you can succeed with your idea.
Truth 3 Stages
1. Ridiculed. When you present your idea and people scoff. You are on the right track.. Don’t stop
2. Violently opposed. See now you really pissing people off!!!!! Great!!!! Now you are causing them to have to engage in change and they really do not want to do that. They want the comfort of the familiar and you are messing that all up!!!!! Forge ahead!!!!
3. Accepted as self evident!!!! See see see you were right all along cause you knew it in your gut!!!!!!!
Good for you now find the next paradigm and shift that one to make things work better!
Take care and good luck Grasshopper!!!!
I Concur!!!
Shifterp Out!!! I will persist till I succeed! Recommend you do the same!!!!
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” Origin uncertain.
Thanks Scott… 🙂
Arthur Schopenhauer.
What strategies work well for exploring innovative concepts?
One of the best ways to explore innovative concepts, especially in team settings is to get people on board. This can be done with collaboration of ideas, finding the synergism between seemingly disparate or different ideas and respectful team work. People are much less likely to shoot ideas down if you can demonstrate early that there is something in it for them.
The other is to display your own ego less. If you are in the habit of shooting down, mocking or undermining the ideas of others, expect it to come back to you.
And lastly, as a friend of mine often says, “give to give, not to get.” You will go much further.
Good post as always, Dan.
Thanks Martina. You got me thinking about team dynamics and innovative ideas. Love it.
One way to lead teams to explore ideas is to take 15 minutes to explore all the reasons an idea Will Work and then 15 to explore all the reasons it won’t. In other words, make everyone advocates and adversaries.
Good point. Then you “force” everyone to think about the project or process in a new way.
Probably one of my favorite posts. Jerks love to announce, “I’m not being a jerk” or “I’m not trying to be rude”. It’s usually followed by “I just tell it like it is.” Have you heard this? Has it come out of your own mouth before? Managers/owners think people appreciate their “honesty”, but it’s killing their relationships. Business teams don’t mutiny against bad leaders; they just jump ship.
Love the first point, and I think it’s most important. If you’re advocating for other people’s ideas and helping them improve them, you’re going to find the favor returned. More importantly, you’re building relationships that will allow you to grow as a leader.
Thanks Justin. You made me think about people who brag about brutal honesty are usually more brutal than honest. I think Bob Burg said that but I’m not sure. The point is hard truths don’t have to be brutal and leaders don’t have to be rude.
This is so true! I’ve noticed a conversational pattern emerging in my kids’ social circles – whenever they say something that they perceive will be received as criticism, they begin with “No offense, but. . . ” I’ve had to coach both of them that if they are leading with that statement, the next words out of their mouth probably *are* offensive and they need to rethink their statement.
Absolutely. In fact, the “hard truth” moments in our lives are often where the greatest impact might be made. For a true leader (not necessarily “just” a manager), these moments are teachable. “Hard truth” moments are influence moments. Which way we influence is up to us.
“There are no bad ideas, just bad timing.” I had a boss who would often say this. And while I understand that it may not literally be true in the case of every idea, it’s good to keep in mind when presenting a new idea for the first time. If you believe in it and are able to continue to build your case for it, don’t give up on it. One of my team members proposed an idea to our HR people over five years ago — and the response was like the sound of crickets. Then, last month, they announced that they were adopting his idea.
Thanks Scott. I appreciate the five year timeline. That’s patience! I think the bigger the organization the slower new ideas get adopted.
Successful leaders know how to disagree without being disagreeable.
Change advocates often make the mistake of focusing on building a support coalition, while ignoring the likely sources of opposition to a new idea. My partners and I have found that in many cases a powerful strategy is to find the single, most likely source of stubborn opposition to the idea, and focus on converting that individual into the “poster child” for the change. when everyone else sees that “TH Opposer” has endorsed the change, the sheep tend to quickly join the flock.
Dear Dan
I think this is my most favorite topic , stand up and face, the point no.1 which you says that build alliances , building up the alliance will and in turn a good alliance will always keep you energetic and lively, we say ” a friend in need a friend indeed”, but , first we need to convince ourself about our friendship/alliance. we need to respect the ideas of others in the tone as we respect ours. a good ideas must be respected. As you rightly mentioned be firm, I will add one more point ” be firm but do not be rigid” firmness bring the understanding whereas rigidity brings the stupidity.
Thanks
Hi Dan. Thanks for this post, it’s funny, this article popped up on my news feed only 5 minutes after having a reasonably passionate conversation with my other half about a recent business idea that I truly believe in. So many of your ideas are excellent!! Especially to listen to counter-points. It’s so hard to do this when it’s all your energy balled up in the hope of seeking approval. I think the other key thing though is actually to not always need to seek approval. Something it is having confidence that you see something that others don’t. What do you think?
Will retweet this 🙂
Kirsty
HI Dan. I have been a silent reader of your blog for some time (I think we are called lurkers) and wanted to thank you for all the support it has given me in my leadership role.. From you and all the comments I have learned to pick up from things that went wrong and move forward reflectively. I have learned that other leaders experience the same things and ways to handle challenges.
I refer back to a post of yours I read earlier, and one to which Scott commented on understanding the ‘why’ in that shared vision. When great ideas further the ‘why’ of the organization, they become a good idea for all. Connecting ideas to the very reason the organization exists (how it differentiates from others like organizations, not just the outcomes of what you do) is a solid base for buy in to new thoughts.