We like to be competent. As experienced professionals, and especially as leaders, there’s a built-in expectation that we know what we’re doing. If you’ve advanced in your career and had some success, changes are good that you have the confidence to take on challenges, make them your own, and make stuff happen. I’m lucky because I have leaders that report to me that exhibit these great qualities every day. I have no worries about the level of dedication, commitment, and expertise that they bring to every challenge.

I meet with my leaders one-on-one every week. Often they come to me with an update on one of their initiatives, and I make a suggestion for improvement. Then they get an embarrassed look on their face and confess, “why didn’t I think of that?” That’s when I answer, “between the two of us, we’ll think of everything.”

I don’t expect the people that work for me to have all of the answers, because I don’t have all of the answers. It’s actually really cool because we all have different perspectives, experiences, and expertise on so many difference subjects. It’s exciting when we fill each other’s gaps and come up with fantastic approaches that we never would have dreamed up on our own.

I like to think of myself as an aggregator of ideas. I’m not particularly original, but I like to have a lot of conversations with smart people, synthesize those ideas, and bring the curated result forward. That often works best in a series of one-on-one conversations. There’s a place for group discussions, but early on, those can be dominated by groupthink. Therefore, I like to start with a series of one-on-one discussions where people can be the most open, free, and forthcoming, then revisit the group for final consensus.

This is how we think. This is how we ideate. As leaders in enterprise technology, we don’t really talk about this, do we? I think we’re somehow expected to always instantly know what to do at every moment. But guess what, we don’t! The good news is, that’s a temporary condition. We just need to give ourselves a little time and conversation, and we’ll come up with fantastic thoughts and ideas.

Leaders are sometimes expected to make on-the-spot decisions. You may feel awkward responding to that situation with, “let me think about that” or “let me talk it over with my team and I’ll get back to you.” We think, “leaders are decision-makers” and “executives make executive decisions” as if those are snap judgments at a point-in-time. That may be required when you are in the heat of a high-severity incident, but for most other decisions, you can afford the time to involve others and make it a quality one.

So, whether it’s with your boss, your peers, or your team members, talk things over. Ideas improve with iterative conversation. Don’t ever think that you need to come up with the answers on your own, and don’t think you need to come up with answers on the spot. That’s stressful and ineffective. Choose the better way. Between the two of us, we’ll think of everything.