We received the following note from a reader who was looking for some leadership guidance:

As a team leader, I was tasked with finding the best solution to a company problem and asked my team to submit their suggestions for handling this issue.

Eventually, the team leader must eliminate ideas, whether fully or partially (where it is highly likely that the best solution is an amalgamation of many of the ideas).

My fear is that the rejection of ideas, in this sense, will lead the owners of these ideas to distrust me as a leader. I’m afraid that this will create a divide, and more than that, I’m afraid that my choosing one over the other will lead to a lower work efficiency in the future.

It’s an understandable challenge: not wanting to alienate team members who are willing to be generous with their ideas and who are vulnerable in the process. You don’t want them to feel as if their contributions weren’t important.

How do you thread the needle in this case?

Here’s what I told her, plus some additional links to put it into perspective: