When exploring a major decision or change, leaders are wise to examine as many viable options as possible, compare them with data and analysis, and select the best choice.
Options create clarity and sharp relief. In fact, research confirms that expanding the option set drastically improves decision quality. Good decision-makers always consider the many options available to them.
That’s what good decision-makers do, but it’s not how great advocates make their case.
Options weaken advocacy and suggest that the advocate does not hold a strong view about the best path forward.
Because leaders and team members are typically asked to explore all options and then present, they often lose sight of the goal of advocacy. Presenting and advocating are not the same thing.
By its very definition, advocacy requires pushing for a specific outcome or choice. While presenting offers facts, data, and perspectives — often showing multiple options and their corresponding tradeoffs — advocacy demands recommending a specific path.
Advocates make the case for action and address any anticipated objections proactively. Simply knowing when you are presenting and when you are advocating is essential.
In some organizations, team members and leaders are trained to present instead of advocate. They are asked to walk decision-makers through the data and to explore the options. They aren’t asked for what they believe is the best choice.
This means people optimize for what is expected and rewarded. So, everything becomes a presentation.
In other organizations, leaders and team members default to presenting because it feels safer, more objective, and less accountable. They won’t stake out ground unless they are forced to. They feel more secure with a list of options to explore.
There is nothing wrong with a strong presentation. As long as it doesn’t pretend to be advocacy.
You see this when presenters explore options and then suggest one. This would be like a trial lawyer conceding that the prosecution has damning evidence of their client’s guilt, before vowing to prove their innocence. The case is already lost because the advocacy has lost its potency.
Advocacy while offering options is not true advocacy at all.
While advocates should always be prepared to talk about alternatives and options, strong advocacy calls for taking a risk — proposing a specific choice and making the case for why.
This is a shift from information to judgment, and it exposes advocates for what they really think and believe. Advocates don’t present. They recommend.
Great advocates offer up options the moment their advocacy falls flat, and not a second before.
