What Kind of Decision Maker are you?
How you make decisions as a company is really important and very telling, of not only your leadership capabilities, but how you handle yourself emotionally.
Are you a reactive and impulsive decision maker? Are you cautious, fearful and care too much about the perception of others? So many people lose respect for poor decision making habits from their leaders because they fail to understand the impact on their teams and therefore their ability to thrive as a collective. There is always enough time to make good decisions in the right way, for the greater good, even under pressure.
You’ve got to get the emotion right out of it, you’ve got to put the needs of the company first, it’s needs are your compass.
You have to create a solid company-wide decision making process or you’ll errode the trust and respect of your team and make poor decisions that will cost you, one way or another.
Here are some things to consider:
Do you or your company really need to do this, is it essential? If yes, do you need to do it now?
What problem am l/we solving?
Have a conversation with your team or the appropriate people. Make it about your company not your personal agenda. Get ego out of the room.
Is this a deviation from our current strategy and plan?
If it is a deviation, you will need to factor in the negative impact on the team, workflow and people’s expectations. This can be very demotivating, people want to finish what they start for job satisfaction and fulfillment.
If it’s right, get clear on what will be the positive impact on the team and flow and how you’ll best get there.
Whatever you decide, make sure you are making this decision from an aligned place. Don’t be impulsive or reactive.
Be smart, validate the implications, consider the feedback.
You need to get buy-in, you need to bring your team on board, this is key to changing direction.
Give the team the time and resources that need, prepare them for success.
Be honest, you have to acknowledge whether it worked or not? If it didn’t why didn't it? What could have you done differently? Then go through this with the team, celebrate the wins, acknowledge the learnings.
Repeat, refine, repeat.
It’s important to teach your team how to make good decisions but also how to pivot when you need them to. You’ll need to create your own system, that works for you and the team as a collective, that brings the best out in you all and gives each area of your company a voice.
Decision making is a skill it needs to be taught and you’ll need to keep expanding and evolving it.