Greetings,

As hard as it is to make decisions as an individual leader, it's even harder to make decisions as a group of leaders.

As we move into the high stakes, decision-making part of the year, we tend to support leaders through lots of tough group decisions, such as promotions or the strategy for their companies. In that work, we've seen firsthand what makes for good, collaborative leadership and some of its common barriers.

Below are some of those insights, which can serve as aspirations and watch-outs as you go into this process.

Alongside skills, experience, and talent, the most effective, senior-level collaborators also exhibit:

• Asking questions from genuine curiosity rather than with an agenda
• Listening for understanding, including to opposing viewpoints
• Assuming positive intent in group discussions

 Three barriers to group decision making that show up consistently are:

• An unwillingness to change one's mind based on new information
• Not admitting when one doesn't know something
• Being wedded to past approaches instead of just being informed by them

These behaviors are simple, but not easy. As you work through big, year-end decisions, I encourage you to give yourself and others grace — and to chose progress over perfection.

I'd love to hear what approaches you find make for constructive executive collaboration. Reply to this email, and let's chat.