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How to convince a direct report to reconsider his decisions

Limor Bergman Gross

Executive Coach at LBG Consulting Service Ltd

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Problem

"In my team, I had a tech lead who made most of the tech decisions. He had notably chosen to use the Derby database when the product was created. He chose this database because it was Java based and would, therefore, work on any platform."

"He chose this database because it was Java based and would, therefore, work on any platform."

However, as the product grew and our large customers began storing a lot of data, we encountered a lot of issues related to very long running maintenance jobs running on this database. It caused us to spend hours troubleshooting customer's issues, recovering their data and fixing the issues. As a manager, it was my responsibility to make him understand that he had made the wrong decision and that it had resulted in very negative impacts for the whole team.

Actions taken

I decided not to tell him what I thought he should do, but rather inspire him to have the idea himself. To do so, I asked him several questions, such as: "What is going on with the database?", "Do you think that it can be fixed?", "What are the alternatives?" and "How long would they take?" until he realized himself that the best solution was to change the database. He became proactive in the research of a new database and took care of its implementation.

Lessons learned

"If I had told him that because of his bad decision the whole team was wasting time, he would have been defensive and the conversation wouldn't have been constructive. It would have resulted in frustrating him and diminishing his confidence at work."

"If I had told him that because of his bad decision the whole team was wasting time, he would have been defensive and the conversation wouldn't have been constructive. It would have resulted in frustrating him and diminishing his confidence at work."

That the main takeaway, which I keep in mind for the future, is that when you have to convince a direct report to reconsider their decisions, you have to do this in a way that will keep them engaged at work.


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Limor Bergman Gross

Executive Coach at LBG Consulting Service Ltd


Leadership DevelopmentCommunicationDecision MakingEngineering ManagementPerformance ReviewsFeedback TechniquesTechnical ExpertiseCareer GrowthCareer Progression

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