Ben Sands on Empowering Teams: Beyond Clear Communication to Distributed Judgment

In a recent LinkedIn post, Ben Sands delves into a common leadership paradox: how the very act of clear communication, intended to empower teams, can inadvertently stifle their independent thinking and problem-solving abilities. Sands argues that while clarity and direction are essential, an overemphasis on these can lead to a team that becomes overly reliant on the leader, hindering scalability and adaptability.

He highlights the subtle, almost invisible, shift that occurs when leaders consistently provide explicit direction and readily answer questions. “Slowly—almost invisibly—execution starts to depend on them,” Sands writes. This approach, he explains, while maintaining quality and ensuring work gets done, centralizes thinking and trains the team to “Wait for direction before acting.”

The Downside of Over-Direction

Sands elaborates on the consequences of this over-reliance. When leaders are the primary source of direction and problem-solving, the team may understand the established processes and the definition of success, but they struggle when faced with novel situations. “They’ve learned what to do, not how to decide,” Sands observes, pointing out that this can significantly slow down progress when unexpected challenges arise.

“When leaders over-direct → Work gets done. → Quality stays high. → But thinking stays centralized.”

This pattern, according to Sands, prevents the development of crucial judgment skills within the team. The team becomes adept at following instructions but lacks the practice in independent decision-making, which is vital for resilience and agility in dynamic business environments.

Cultivating Distributed Judgment for Scalable Execution

The core of Sands’s message is that true execution scalability hinges on distributing judgment throughout the team, not concentrating it at the leadership level. He proposes a shift in leadership approach, moving from merely communicating clear tasks to fostering an environment where team members are actively involved in decision-making processes.

Practical Strategies for Empowering Teams

Sands outlines several actionable strategies for leaders to cultivate this distributed judgment:

• Assign outcomes, not tasks: Focus on clearly defining what needs to be achieved, allowing the team to determine the ‘how’.
• Set the decision frame upfront: Establish clear parameters regarding success criteria, constraints, and who has decision-making authority.
• Make them go first: Encourage team members to propose solutions, draft plans, and make initial decisions before seeking leader input.
• Run regular reviews: Conduct sessions to analyze what happened, extract learnings, and inform future actions.
• Coach in the moment: Provide timely and specific feedback as the work is being done, rather than solely relying on post-project critiques.

As Sands puts it, “If you want better execution, don’t just communicate more. Create space for people to think, decide, and own outcomes.” This approach, he suggests, moves beyond simply conveying information to actively developing the team’s capacity for independent thought and action.

“Execution scales only when judgment is distributed. That requires leaders to involve their teams in real decisions—before things are perfect, and before the answer is obvious.”

Sands concludes by prompting leaders to reflect on their own practices, asking, “Where could you step back this week so your team can step up?” This call to action underscores his belief that empowering teams requires a conscious effort from leaders to cede control and create opportunities for their team members to exercise their judgment and ownership.

In addition to his insights on leadership communication, Sands also announced an upcoming live session for senior leaders titled “7 Core Skills of Healthy, High-Growth Leaders,” scheduled for February 12th. This session aims to delve deeper into the capabilities that differentiate elite leaders and provide practical strategies for building leverage and achieving better outcomes with less friction.