Send to KindleOpinions vs. Facts: Which Do You Use?
I was just reading an article that masqueraded as a thought piece on various social issues relating to business and economic circumstances. As I read, I quickly became aware that the piece was really just a screed lamenting the fact that businesses use resources.
The article contained pretty sidebars and callouts and it was almost like those cat videos on Facebook: you know you shouldn’t be wasting your time but you can’t quite pull yourself away. The article contained the obligatory platitudes and opinions disguised as data and of course meaningful quotes; this particular author seemed to have a fondness for Ghandi, but unfortunately, the article was distressingly short of real facts.
Do you do this as a leader? Do you present your opinions as facts and expect your people to accept that without question? Everyone has opinions. As a leader you are free to express those opinions to your staff, but you must be sure to express them as your opinions or beliefs, not as fact. To not do so will at best destroy your credibility and at worst can bring down the entire organization.
Some years ago, when I was responsible for operations in a large aircraft maintenance organization, I took action based on some commonly accepted wisdom and my own interpretation of that wisdom. I ignored the naysayers and pressed on in spite of their council. It turned out that the commonly accepted wisdom was wrong and those whom I had dismissed as naysayers were correct; something I would have realized if I had done the necessary due diligence to separate opinion from fact.
As leaders we must recognize when we are acting on unsupported opinion rather than rationally derived fact. That isn’t to say you can’t have opinions, or that your opinions don’t enter into your decision making process. Just make sure you’re honest with yourself and your organization about which is which.
