#517 Getting Buy-In From Senior Leadership: A Strategic Conversation with Byron McFarland | Niels Brabandt
Getting Buy-In From Senior Leadership: A Strategic Conversation with Byron McFarland with Niels Brabandt
In a high-level conversation between Niels Brabandt and Byron McFarland, one of the most underestimated leadership challenges is addressed with clarity and precision: how to secure genuine buy-in from a senior leadership team. This discussion moves beyond surface-level leadership advice and delivers a rigorous, experience-based perspective for decision-makers navigating complex organisational dynamics.
Buy-In Is Not Declared, It Is Built
Byron McFarland challenges a common executive misconception: that presenting a well-prepared strategy should be sufficient to secure agreement. In reality, buy-in is not achieved in a single meeting. It is the result of deliberate, structured engagement before any formal discussion takes place.
The Power of Psychological Reciprocity
A central concept highlighted in the interview is psychological reciprocity. Leaders who actively engage with the perspectives, ambitions, and concerns of their senior leadership team significantly increase the likelihood of alignment. Understanding how others view the organisation is not a soft skill. It is a strategic necessity.
Feelings Versus Facts in Executive Decision-Making
The interview also addresses a critical tension in leadership: decisions influenced by personal instinct versus those grounded in data. McFarland emphasises that even emotionally driven objections deserve to be explored. Individuals in senior roles have earned their position, and their concerns often reflect underlying insights that must be examined, not dismissed.
The Myth of Majority Rule
Relying on majority votes within senior leadership teams is presented as a flawed approach. According to Byron McFarland, sustainable execution requires full alignment, not partial consensus. Without this, resistance persists beneath the surface, ultimately undermining strategic initiatives.
Leadership as a Relationship Discipline
A particularly direct insight emerges when discussing leaders who avoid relational engagement. McFarland makes it clear that effective CEOs must be either compelling or convincing. Both require the ability to engage meaningfully with people. Leadership without relational depth is insufficient.
Early Engagement Prevents Late Resistance
The conversation highlights the importance of early stakeholder involvement. Identifying key influencers and involving them at the outset reduces resistance later. Excluding critical voices from the development phase almost guarantees opposition during implementation.
Conclusion
This interview between Niels Brabandt and Byron McFarland provides a decisive reminder: leadership is not about presenting answers but about creating alignment. Buy-in is not an outcome of authority. It is the result of structured dialogue, mutual respect, and strategic communication.
Niels Brabandt
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More on this topic in this week's videocast and podcast with Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify
For the videocast’s and podcast’s transcript, read below this article.
Is excellent leadership important to you?
Let's have a chat: NB@NB-Networks.com
Contact: Niels Brabandt on LinkedIn
Website: www.NB-Networks.biz
Podcast and Videocast Transcript
Niels Brabandt
Let's say you have an idea and you want to get that the senior leadership team actually agrees on it. The question is, will they, and how can you convince them? We have an expert on the matter with us here today. Hello and welcome, Byron McFarland.
Byron McFarland
Well, thank you, Niels. Good to see you again.
Niels Brabandt
Thank you very much for coming back. So welcome back to round number two, basically. When you now stand in front of a leadership team, you're usually pretty well prepared.
Niels Brabandt
What happens when you say, "Look, I have this vision. This is well prepared. I'm not doing anything off the cuff here." So it's well prepared. It's well explained. It's well founded in facts. And suddenly you realize they say something like, "Doesn't fit our strategy," and they just put it down within three words or five words. How do you deal with that?
Byron McFarland
Well, I would counsel the CEO to first have met one-on-one with the senior leadership team and understand their vision for the organization before I was to try to dictate mine. So I counsel my clients to use what they call psychological reciprocity, which is, to the extent that I care about your well-being and your happiness, chances are you're going to care about mine.
Byron McFarland
So as a CEO, I would first ask my team, "How do you feel about the organization? What do you feel the organization is capable of? How do you experience yourself moving into more and more responsibility and try to get them to explain their vision for themselves in the organization, which then makes them bought into what you want to do more likely?" They'll buy into that.
Niels Brabandt
Excellent. Do you think that some CEOs are too full of themselves with thinking they know it all and just put things forward?
Byron McFarland
I think that most people get nervous about asking others how they feel. There's a concern about, "Am I crossing a line? Am I going beyond the employer-employee relationship?" And I would say that that would be probably as common as ego.
Niels Brabandt
Absolutely.
Byron McFarland
The people I deal with tend to be uncertain as to, "Was it okay for me to do that?" And as opposed to, "Well, why would I want them to be part of the creation of the story?"
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, absolutely. What would you say when the following happens? And that is something which I had to observe in one M&A case. There was a really well-rolled-out plan, and then someone countered it and said, "Look, I have a different feeling about this." And then they came up with their opinion. However, they said, "I don't think we should proceed because I think it's a wrong decision," which means that person put their personal feelings and opinion over facts.
Niels Brabandt
How do you deal with the situation when you have the facts on your side, which you can prove with data science evidence? And someone says, "Yeah, it's all nice, but my feeling simply says, nah, feels a bit off." How do you deal with that?
Byron McFarland
Well, that's a really challenging one. I think most people are expressing their feelings based on instinct and a set of facts that they're interpreting. So I want to give the person the benefit of the doubt. If they're in the room, then they probably earned a seat. And if they've earned a seat, then their voice should be heard. And ideally, in a meeting with a senior leadership team, there would be enough trust and confidence that we can hash it out and have the robust discussion. And then if we don't agree at the end, that's fine. But one of us is buying into the other one's outcome, or they're moving on, or they're moving on.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, absolutely. What do you think about people who say, "Look, I don't have to convince my whole senior leadership team. I think I just need the majority. And when I get the majority by vote on my side, I can proceed from there." Yes or no?
Byron McFarland
Feels like a half measure and half likely to win. If I was in that situation, I would go one-to-one with the people and ask them how they feel about what it is that you're trying to do, have them express their concerns, unpack their fears, their anxieties, their resistance, and really give it an opportunity to come into, say, an open environment of, "This is how I can this is how we can probably move forward together."
Byron McFarland
Find a compromise because you really need to talk it through. You need the whole team bought in. If you don't have the whole team bought in, you're not likely to achieve the ultimate objective.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah. So how do you deal with people? You probably coach a lot of CEOs so far. How do you deal with people who say, "Look, this whole how do you feel? What are your feelings?" Some people might say, "Look, I am just not the person to do this. I am more the CFO kind of person. I'm more the financial person. I'm more the numbers person here." So this whole how do you feel? Even if they answer, I just don't know what to say. So how do you deal with people who say, "I am just not the kind of person to do that"?
Byron McFarland
I'd say you're not a very good CEO.
Niels Brabandt
That's a tough one. So.
Byron McFarland
I mean, the CEO is supposed to be a big relationship person. The CEO is either A, very compelling, and people will automatically want to follow them, or B, they're very convincing and that they have something that they want to do.
Byron McFarland
They get buy-in from the stakeholders. And if they see resistance, then they're probably figuring out a way to resolve that resistance so they can get the appearance of complete buy-in on the initiative. So I find really good CEOs to be very compelling and convincing.
Niels Brabandt
Do you think people can learn to be very convincing, or is it something they have or don't have?
Byron McFarland
As children, we are overcoming objections without thinking about it. We persist as children. Kids ask and ask and ask until they get what they want. And for the children who don't get beat down by their parents that, "Just stop bothering me," the parents allow the children to explore their feelings and be persistent. Those tend to be better leaders because they've overcome the resistance, and they're willing to continue until the resistance has been overcome if they're seeing a lot of resistance.
Byron McFarland
So I think that it tends to be the result of their, what do they call it, nurturing. So if we've had to overcome a lot of obstacles, then you're probably going to be very persistent, and you're going to ask for what you want. Emotional safety is tough, though. Some people don't feel comfortable expressing themselves to others. And I find that the place to test that is in peer groups. So if you're a business owner and you're not sure if you're really capable of asking those questions, get into a peer group where you're going to be forced to ask questions of your peers.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, excellent. So how do you deal with that situation? Let's say you convinced the vast majority of your leadership team, and there's basically just one person left who's not that convinced. However, in their department, which is, for example, the IT department, they hold opinion leadership. So probably you have 15 people in your senior leadership team. 14 out of 15 are convinced. But the one person that's still nagging about it is one where they can cause real trouble if they are not on board. How did you deal with that situation?
Byron McFarland
Well, it seems like that person should have been collaborated with early on if they're that key to the outcome. So I think that whenever you're pursuing change, which strategies change, there needs to be an assessment of, "Who do I need to get buy-in from early?" And if I needed buy-in early from IT, then I would go to IT early and understand IT's position on this and try to get IT to figure out a way for this to work. That would be my approach, is how can we make this work in a manner that you see as being feasible? And then we'll leave in that into the approach. It's when you get kind of myopic and you don't bring in other ideas that you tend to get a lot of resistance because people don't feel like, "Well, I wasn't part of the creation, so therefore I'm not going to be enthusiastically bought into the outcome."
Niels Brabandt
Absolutely. So a lot of what we talked about today is, do you think that instead of just getting the people in a room and saying, "Hey, that's my plan," you should have a lot of one-to-one talks before you actually get the senior leadership team together, basically talk to them one by one, see who's probably a bit more challenging, who's a bit more on board. And once you got the buy-in of each and every one of them, then you bring the big group. And then from there, you take, which is, of course, a lot more effort.
Byron McFarland
It is. If it's a very meaningful outcome, then I would be seeking buy-in early so that I'm not dealing with the resistance in public. So ideally, I would get enough buy-in.
Byron McFarland
For example, if it's an organizational strategic initiative that we're pursuing, ideally, all my senior leadership team would be bought into that. And whatever concerns they had, they were able to address them either one-on-one with the CEO or in the group. And the group had enough trust that everyone was willing to express their observations without fear of reprisal.
Byron McFarland
And then from there, if we can't get everybody to agree, then to the extent that you want to move forward and use a simple quorum, I guess you can. But you know now that these other people are going to have to be brought along. And I would then be coming back around behind and going, "Okay, I understand you got some concerns here. I'm trying to move in this direction. What is it that you really feel is the what is your objection to this? Help me understand your position." So that would be my approach, is to try and get them to express their position thoughtfully.
Niels Brabandt
Absolutely. We see you have a lot of experience in this field. And some people might now think, "I think before we move in, maybe we should ask Byron what we should do." And of course, my last question for this interview is, when people now think you can help them, how can they reach out to you?
Byron McFarland
My website is themcfarlandgroup.com. I'm on LinkedIn. That's Byron K. McFarland on LinkedIn. Those are my two mediums. Or you can send me an email at byron@themcfarlandgroup.com.
Niels Brabandt
Perfect. I think these are brilliant final words. You see, getting buy-in from your senior leadership team, not easy, but it's worth going the full distance. Byron McFarland, thank you very much for your time.
Byron McFarland
You're welcome.