Leadership Requires Effective Decision Making
Effective decision making is an important skill for workers at every level in an organization. The biggest difference is the impact of those decisions -- when leaders make a bad call, it can bring the whole business down.Here are a few great articles and blog posts I’ve read on effective decision making this week. I think you’ll find them helpful.Consider These 3 Decision-Making Criteria Before Tackling Any Change Effort. Forbes: “Understanding assumptions is key to broadening your knowledge of the subject. Specifically, you want to explore not just the supporting assumptions but also the non-supporting ones, too. Play devil’s advocate with yourself and assume the decision will fail. What’s the backup plan? If your current decision-making boundaries are too constraining, consider why such parameters exist in the first place. Can those boundaries be redefined? Who can you enlist to help define and explore those boundaries?”5 Bad Decision-Making Habits That Can Destroy Your Business. Entrepreneur: “Research can and should go into practically every decision you make, from selecting your business’s target audience to hiring a new customer service specialist. The amount of time and effort you spend researching should be directly proportional to the scale of the decision. Obviously, company-altering decisions should be met with greater research effort than deciding where to go to lunch with a potential new client.”Why Smart Leaders Make Dumb Decisions. TLNT: “Good leaders are grounded. They regularly and mindfully seek the opinions of others, even while accepting full responsibility for the actions committed under their charge. A grounded leader cares about his or her effect on others. Unlike unconscionable leaders, whose concern mostly stems from whether certain actions make them look bad, good leaders really DO give a damn. But staying grounded takes work. It’s natural for leaders to be tempted into dismissing the reality that many around them are dependent on their favor and therefore have strong reason to flatter, acquiesce, and obey regardless of their true feelings.”Leaders as Decision Architects. Harvard Business Review: “There are two main causes of poor decision making: insufficient motivation and cognitive biases. To determine which is causing the problematic behavior, companies should ask two questions: First, is the problem caused by people’s failure to take any action at all? If so, the cause is a lack of motivation. Second, are people taking action but in a way that introduces systematic errors into the decision-making process? If so, the problem is rooted in cognitive biases.”Decisions, Part One -- Choosing a Decision Style. ZingTrain: “In consultative decision, the decision-maker has the final say but actively solicits the suggestions and opinions of others and takes these opinions into account when making the decision. The ideas, suggestions, and recommendations of others give the decision-maker better information upon which to base the decision and also ensures that others have a stake in the outcome and implementation of the decision...Make sure everyone clearly understands that you welcome and encourage their input but that you will be making the final decision and it may not agree with some of the suggestions you have received.”Need some help improving your decision making skills? Contact us; we’re happy to assist.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.
