4 Tips on Decision Making
Mastering Decision Making in Leadership
Every manager will develop their own decision making process. There will be lots of similarities, but it does come down to personal preference and what works best for the individual and the culture.
However, here are 4 key tips that apply to all managers when it comes to decision making.
Consider the Reversability
The reality is that some decisions can be reversed easily with little to no impact. Other decisions can only be reversed with considerable pain (or can’t be reversed at all). Decisions that can easily be reversed should be easier to make as you can adjust course later if needed. Decisions that are difficult to reverse should be made with more caution.
Caution: Don’t be too casual about easily reversed decisions. You still want to try to make the correct one. If you change course too many times, you risk getting a reputation as a flip-flopper, which will hurt your ability to execute. You may also lose the trust of your team.
Have (and teach) a process
Some people like pro/con lists. Some like ROI. Build a system - it may be multiple systems: one for easy decisions, one for hard, etc. - and teach your team how to use it. Eventually, they will be able to make the decisions and won’t have to bother you. The team will also be able to help you improve or clarify your process.
Where most managers struggle is that they have a process in their mind, but they never share it. This is usually because it isn’t clear enough in their mind - it is a concept, but not a fully formed process. Sharing it requires the manager to think through the elements and how to explain them properly.
Know how much information is enough.
One of the most common mistakes young managers make is thinking they need all the information to make a decision. You will never have all the information. The question to ask is “how much information is enough?”
Unfortunately, there is no clear cut way to define this. It becomes a combination of experience and knowledge. For example, when I first became a manager, I had a decent knowledge of the organizational culture, but not a deep enough knowledge of the different roles in the group. I needed more information on the roles and the individual strengths and weaknesses of the individual to make a decision. After working with the team for a few years, I didn’t need as much time because I had a deeper knowledge of all aspects of the team and organization.
Caution: Depth of knowledge doesn’t mean you don’t need a process - it just means you can speed things up. You should still have a process and follow it, no matter how experienced you are.
Evaluate the decision process (AAR).
Don’t evaluate the result, but evaluate if you used your process correctly or if you need to reconsider your process.
I’ve spoken about the need to avoid resulting1 a lot. It is the curse of most organizations. Which means a great manager evaluates a decision based on how well the process was followed. It may mean evaluating the process itself - which is perfectly fine.
Conclusion
Decision making is hard because it rarely has a clear cut answer. It involves variables you can’t know and future actions you can’t predict reliably. Having a process and considering the above tips will help you make better decisions more consistently.
Resulting is deciding if a decision is good or bad based on the result. It is flawed because so many factors come into play that the result is rarely the sole result of the decision.