Decision making is hard. Decision making is double hard when big dollars, your company’s future reputation or your team members wellbeing at stake and unfortunately, not very many business leaders and owners are very effective when it comes to important decision making.
As leaders, we make decisions every day and their level of ease vs effort is normally directly proportionate to the level of risk at stake and its importance in driving the business forward towards its goals.
One aspect of decision making that is sometimes missed is the impact of non-decision making in organisations. When this happens, it forces leaders to react to every possible outcome that can play out within the company’s culture as well as within their market.
Contrary to what some may believe, choosing to not make an important decision is actually a decision – and sometimes, by avoiding a decision, it does more harm than good.
Nothing good comes from non-decision making, and many negatives play out – for a start, it erodes trust within the culture of your organisation – both up and down the hierarchy as over time, the Board won’t trust you to move the organisation forward to deliver their approved strategy and your team won’t want to stand beside you as the business isn’t moving forward.
There is also a risk that you could miss a vital opportunity and lose your competitive advantage if you don’t strike at the right time, and of course, from a personal perspective –you may lose sleep, your confidence may erode, it may generate anxiety and your overall wellbeing is impacted.
Perhaps your challenge is dealing with uncertainty – Wharton Executive Education in the United States has an intriguing Executive Program that assists leaders on the Strategic Decision Mindset within uncertain environments that may be worth considering. (More on Wharton’s program is here).
Another perspective to consider is whether the heavy lifting for decision making in your Company is just on your shoulders (relying on your personal judgement). Are you tapping into the skillsets from your Leadership Team? Does your organisations governance framework include a decision-making model that taps into the knowledge, skills and experience of your team members to recommend and support the directional decisions that are being made?
In my experience, shared decision making =equals= shared ownership and accountability.
Wouldn’t it be really great to make important decisions in a confident and informed way with the right mindset and framework that provides you the ability control the outcomes effectively?
That’s where we can help. If you’d like some help with your decision-making framework in your organisation, or even some personal help with managing your mindset for important decision making, we’d love to chat. You can call Lisa on 0418 218 157.
