Manage The Right Outcome By Managing Decisions Well

Leadership Workshop (5 of 12) - Manage Decisions Well

Leading at Light Speed is a powerful leadership book by Eric Douglas revealing 10 specific ways an organization must act and behave to build trust, spark innovation, and create a high-performing organization. Chapter four identifies methods to Manage Decisions Well.

Decisions are the atoms of every organization. It takes hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions for every business transaction, new product line or service launched, or every process made for efficient and reliable. It is important for team members to know their decision-making roles and responsibilities in order to build high levels of trust, teamwork and innovation.

Leadership at light speed requires managers to focus energy into areas where oftentimes difficult conversations occur. First of all, it means clarifying priorities. Which is the first decision? Which decision is less important?

Additionally, this means defining decision-making roles for your people, which oftentimes translates into less responsibility than your team members may think they have. The manager of a large hospital division asked me to lunch one day and said: “I need help learning how to be a better leader. What do you see as the most important thing I need to do?My immediate answer was “Define before you delegate”. Making the decisions you desire? Which decisions are you delegating to other people? You can’t be afraid to have those discussions.”

Our research shows few managers pay much attention to managing decisions. Oftentimes, the difference between decision making and decision managing is not accounted for. They fail to give clear instructions about roles and responsibilities. Different types of decision processes can be confused. Cooperation does not necessarily mean consensus. They fail to lay out decision processes in a holistic way so that everyone can see their role. As a result, it is a failure to assert themselves as leaders. There is always a danger of empowering others too much or too little. Only failure is achieved when there is no ideal balance of trust, cooperation and innovation.

An organization’s decisions are the day-to-day inputs and outputs. Operating at light speed means leaders must build systems resulting in across-the-board good decisions throughout the organization. They need to teach people how to manage decisions within the confines of the core values and vision. It is necessary to re-evaluate the difficult decisions and how they are communicated out. Clarify assignments. If left unchecked, the sludge of bureaucracy inches itself in and the organization stagnates. Adapting from making decisions to managing them is most important.

What is your organization doing to implement high-performance practices? Find out with this free work survey.

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