Up to a point, Lord Copper.

[Scoop, by Evelyn Waugh]

As an engineering manager, I feel pretty strongly that leadership should be cultivating a culture where they’re inviting people to challenge strategy/tactics, and their people feel comfortable challenging them. Part of that is recognizing the power dynamics at play, and consciously making room for other people to contribute to decisions. Realistically sometimes leaders have to take decisive action that doesn’t take into account all of the input they would ideally have received if the time was there, but in general I think one of the most important qualities of a leader is knowing when to shut up and let your team take the reigns.

Asking questions in private works most of the time.

_The Mote in God's Eye_:

"Wrong," said Renner.

"The tactful way," Rod said quietly, "the polite way to disagree with the Senator would be to say, 'That turns out not to be the case.'"

Renner's face lit up. "Hey. I like that. Anyway, the Senator's wrong."