It is curious that one of the most important attributes of a
leader's activity, that of decision making, can be the most taxing.
I recall a member of my Vistage CEO peer group telling me that his
colleague, the Technical Director, was unable to make a decision, which he
found irksome to say the least.
He put this inability down to the fact that the director was an
engineer and needed to collect all the relevant (and sometimes irrelevant)
evidence to substantiate the decision making process.
It wasn't that he was risk averse, or was just that he needed to
be absolutely certain that every possible piece if justification had been covered.
The upshot was that he finished up with vast amounts of data, very
little information and no intelligence on which he could make a decision.
As a consequence he either went on and on collecting data or just
gave up and went negative.
The leader's frustration was understandable; being the owner as
well as the leader he wanted decisive people around him who didn't need
constant reassurance that the data collecting process was essential to
"get it right".
Thus inability to come to a decision can have several a raft of
reasons and sometimes a mixture of all of them.
It must be said that certain functions in a business can lead to
this irritating result of indecision; the numerical functions like technical
and financial often lead the way whereas sales people can go overboard in the
opposite direction. It' the "ready,
fire, aim" syndrome.
If one of the team is inherently risk averse then by definition
they are more than likely to be indecisive and hence their value has to be
questioned. That form of indecision almost always leads to upward delegation
and that has to be resisted at all costs.
Beware of the indecisive one who won't make a decision in case,
heaven forfend, failure could prejudice both position and the job itself.
Fear of failure is a very powerful emotion and it takes a
combination of personal strength and sensitive leadership to overcome it or at
least get it into perspective.
That perceived downward spiral following possible failure leading
to the only realistic solution of jumping off Beachy Head is all too real for
some people. As I said a dose of reality and getting it into perspective is
necessary in these cases.
And what about he leader or executive who shoots from the hip, who
is reactive and ready to make a decision often without any evidence to back it
up?
More dangerous I would submit than indecision when at least some
assessment of the possible risk would be valuable.
It can be a dangerous but exciting roller coaster ride with the
outcome in doubt all along the line. Fortunately few people other than the
owner of a business are prepared to operate in this way.
Another issue is decision making by committee. I remember talking to the Managing Partner of
a law firm with 30 partners about how they came to a decision.
I rather naively suggested that he would seek consensus at which
he exploded.
"Consensus? Some hope!
They must have unanimity so that everyone agrees"
Again naively I asked him his they came to a decision on anything.
"We don't,” he said
and that was the end of that conversation.
Smooth decision making is the lifeblood of any successful business
or organisation for that matter.
There will always be a modicum if risk involved; the art is to
assess that risk, decide whether it can be reduced and if not to make a
conscious decision to go ahead or abort.
The key is to do it, one way or the other; vacillation does no
good to anyone and only spreads uncertainty through the business.
Remember that it’s always JFDI time!
You can download my book "Leadimg to Success" from Amazon
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