Danny Grossman launched Wild Planet Toys in 1993, and has watched revenues grow 50 percent annually to go along with steadily rising profitability. Despite this dizzying pace, he takes the time to foster an open community, starting with the leadership.

In any organization, employees are not always clear why decisions are made and who will ultimately take responsibility for their execution. At times the management team can come across as a secret society. To counter that dynamic, Danny aims to illuminate the process behind each major decision and what role, if any, his employees will have in shaping it. He admits that he adopted this leadership style to compensate for his own weakness: "I like to hear from all quarters and arrive at consensus," he shares. "But at the same time I have a tendency to move toward what I want in a passive aggressive way."

Grossman set up a code for managers to communicate to their work teams that any one of four processes will be followed: a tombstone, a boulder, a stake, or a notion.

A tombstone sends the signal that a senior manager will make the decision with little input from the team. A strong leader knows when a non-negotiable is on the table and names it.

More commonly, managers are confronted with a boulder and moving it out of the company's path requires many hands. Opinions are solicited and dialog encouraged, yet a "boulder" does not mask that the ultimate decision comes from the corner office.

There are times when leaders believe their workers should have more of a stake in a decision. Broad participation may be sought, for instance, in questions of company branding or new channels for product distribution.

Managers solicit a notion most typically when they are not sure even how, or whether, a decision should be made. The goal of a "notion" is to stimulate brainstorming.

Grossman believes that trust comes from clarity: "We don't pretend to be democratic. It would be dishonest to pretend the majority rules because the reality is that some people have more power than others, and at different times."

{moscomment}