Are you struggling to make timely decisions as a leader? Here’s some pointers to build more confidence in your decision-making
Self-doubt is common, especially for new leaders or when moving to a new level of responsibility. Leaders who say they lack confidence notice that it frequently shows up as a struggle to make timely decisions.
When a leader hits a certain level of seniority in a business, it’s not normally feasible (or appropriate) for them to maintain a deep level of expertise. This can lead to delays in decision-making if the individual feels they don’t have the level of information or detail they are used to. This is where the doubt creeps in.
Doubt can be helpful for new leaders to minimise the impact of rushing in and creating issues before they are aware of the risks and culture of the team. However, it becomes a problem when self-doubt becomes long-term and ingrained. Some leaders become paralysed with indecision which negatively impacts their productivity. Worse, it can lead to their whole team being unproductive as they await decisions and direction.
We worked with a team where the leader struggled to make timely decisions. Most management meetings where decisions were required would result in the leader giving a ‘let’s take this offline’ response. Then to add to the problem, items were rarely followed up after the meeting. This resulted in the same issues being raised multiple times with no action taken and frustration increasing. It’s easy to see how the team became quickly unproductive and disengaged.
So, if a leader needs to find the confidence to make decisions, here are a few tips on how can they break the indecisive pattern?
1. Leverage and trust the expertise of others
It’s understandable that we feel as the leader of a group, team or project that we need to have all the answers ourselves. However, it’s almost impossible to be across every detail of what’s happening once we are leading a team. Our role as the leader is to pull together the expertise and knowledge from across our teams to facilitate the best approach and decisions.
Here’s a real-life example of the challenge.
Paul came to us for coaching. He was concerned that his inability to make decisions was impacting his career and his happiness. He felt that at he was carrying the weight of unmade decisions all the time. It was impacting his ability to relax after work and waking him at night. Paul realised he had a preference to think reflectively and deeply on the different aspects of the decision and conclude once he was sure he knew the potential downsides of each option. This meant he had to keep going back to the subject-matter experts for more and more information to be certain he was making the right call.
This might work if he only made one decision at a time and without time pressure, but the reality of today’s workplace is that decisions need to be made constantly to keep the business productive. Paul’s slow approach to decision-making was impacting productivity and his capability was being questioned.
We tried a new approach. For the next decision, Paul brought together the key subject-matter experts and key stakeholders in a room and asked them their preferred approach along with the challenges and risks of taking that path. Once everyone had reviewed the options, instead of walking away with all the information and making the decision in isolation, he facilitated a discussion with the group around which option they now preferred and the strengths & weaknesses of each. This way, he managed to extract all the information in the meeting and the whole team were able to buy in to the preferred solution.
If the solution is complex and the decision impactful, this may require a workshop or a few meetings to resolve, but the outcome is likely to be better than making the decision is isolation. Firstly, you have all the pertinent information and it’s understood by everyone. Secondly, a wider group has had an opportunity to contribute, be heard and buy into the solution.
2. Track and manage the risks
Getting to a preferred option is a big win, especially if the decision is complex and has significant potential impacts. However, for some people this is where overthinking and sleepless nights kick in. What if we made the wrong decision? What if we didn’t have all the information? What if conditions change?
The ability to cope with this uncertainty can be a key differentiator for people to successfully climb the ladder or grow their business When we hit the limit of the uncertainty we can cope with it can lead to significantly increased stress and pressure.
So, how do those people who have to make huge decisions get a good night’s sleep?
They are diligent about managing the risks around their decisions. This is either tracked on a project or initiative basis or as a department (sometimes both) and requires discipline and time to track and manage. It may not be exciting but it’s a game changer in relieving stress and pressure if you are making key decisions as part of your role. It also allows you to identify the good and poor decisions early and take appropriate action to minimise any negative impact from the decisions.
3. Accept the Unknown Unknowns knowing you and the team can deal with the consequences
Implementing the first 2 steps will dramatically improve productivity and reduce stress. That said, there are still times when even the best options with the best risk mitigation plans ‘turn to custard’. This is the challenge of the unknown unknowns – those issues that pop up that no-one could have predicted or planned for. Think Coronavirus, loss of a whole group of key experts from the team, divestments etc. We can mitigate these major events to some degree in our plans, but it’s not practical or useful to plan for every left-field scenario on every project. Sometimes we just have to go with the best option, manage the risks and if the unknown unknowns appear we deal with them at the time.
If worrying about these unknown unknowns is keeping us awake at night then working on our mindset becomes the best approach. A question I always asked myself when I found myself overly worrying about ‘what might happen’ on a project I would ask myself “Given we clearly picked a strong option and we have managed risks along the way, could we have foreseen this issue arising from left field? Is it something we could have predicted?”
Most likely the answer would be ‘no’! You may have learnt something that will benefit you and the team in the future too.
If you’d like more support on making decisions, managing risk or finding a way to reduce worrying about work, get in touch: info@leadershipcreativity.com.au or Join my Facebook Group for leaders: The Energised Business Leader