When I was a nuclear missile officer at the start of my Air Force career, my commander used a technique that I still find useful today: The Two-Objection Policy.

Controlling nuclear weapons can involve complex challenges that require quick decisions, and they better be the right ones, because the consequences can be a bit more serious than failing to meet your quarterly sales goals. As a commander, you often need to make a decision quickly, but at the same time, you do not want to ignore the knowledge and skills of others on your team. The Two-Objection Policy strikes an effective balance, and you should consider having something similar in your box of leadership tools.

It works like this: as a commander I am responsible for making decisions, but I have a deputy commander who is supposed to stop me if I am going down the wrong path (think of this person as the Mister Spock to my Captain Kirk). When I was assigned new deputy commanders, I would tell them:

If I say something and you think I am making a mistake, it’s your job to interrupt me and very quickly convince me that I am wrong. If I continue to go forward with my idea and you are really sure I am wrong, you have ONE MORE CHANCE to convince me. If you cannot, then we go with my decision, and there are no more questions, because we are out of time and need to go forward.

The advantage of the policy was that we had a system for making decisions quickly in what could be a very tense situation. We did not have to wonder how we would make a decision, and we did not spend time arguing, but just as importantly, we had the benefit of two brains instead of just one. My deputies knew I would listen to their inputs, but they also knew at what point I would make the decision and they would then follow my orders.

You should have something like this in your relationship with your employees. You need to be open to their inputs, but ultimately you need to make a decision and they need to follow it, whether it was their original idea or yours. Maybe you do not need a style as strict as what we used, since you probably have more time to make a decision, but whatever your preference is, everyone involved in the conversation should know about it.

When you move into a new leadership role, or have new employees come to work for you, take the time to discuss your leadership philosophy with them, and let them know when the “inputs and discussion” window is open, and when they should expect to go forward and implement. As organizations try to be more open and collaborative, you run the risk of talking forever and never making a decision. Create an expectation so everyone knows how to operate, and you can remove a lot of confusion and friction from your working environment.

(If new managers and leaders in your organization need help getting started, you should explore Designing Leaders’ workshop for new leaders, and perhaps our workshop to help create a collaborative environment, too.)