Although having a consensus is lovely, it is uncommon and undesirable. Being an educational leader, remember that 20% of your school or district’s population will be opposed to anything. You’ll never achieve unanimity on your vision or a single project. That is, nevertheless, perfectly acceptable.

Are You Sure I Don’t Require Consensus?

You’re the supervisor, and they’ve hired you to make the difficult choices, not to persuade everyone to agree on a plan of action. When you comprehend this, you’ll see that it is not always necessary to compromise; instead, you need to make the best choice for your company, irrespective of others’ preferences.  If you always attempt to establish a consensus, you are affected and led by 20% of your staff.

Lions are uninterested in the views of sheep, and education leaders are uninterested in others’ perspectives unless they are valid. They make the best choice at the appropriate moment, and if others don’t like it, they may look for another employment because your ship only has one commander.

I’m sure I’ll get some criticism on this, but when was the last time you achieved an agreement with a group of more than ten people? It was challenging if you managed, and you had to argue and make several compromises. Also, you may have compromised your initial purpose or ambition to appease everyone. Everyone loses in the end.

Conclusion

Don’t get me wrong: enabling stakeholders to assist you in making a choice is wonderful since it allows you to consider all of the possible consequences of various options. However, when they’ve done so, it is up to you to make the ultimate choice based on the facts you have acquired.