Hinges of Destiny: Decision-Making for Leaders
“Choices are the hinges of destiny.” Poet, Edwin Markham
4 advantages of being decisive:
#1. Speed.
Decisive leaders choose and move. They waste less time exploring options.
Action-oriented team members hate waiting for decisions.
#2. Clarity.
Clarity produces confidence. People like to know where they’re going.
#3. Learning.
Learning happens as you move forward if you remain open to new information.
#4. Momentum.
Momentum is a series of small wins.
It’s easier to roll the ball once it’s moving.
5 dangers of being too decisive:
#1. Limited participation.
People won’t tell you what they think if you’ve already made up your mind. Disengagement and lack of goal ownership result in disappointing performance.
#2. Devalued and disrespected people.
Respectful treatment of all employees at all levels was rated as the top contributor to overall employee satisfaction. (SHRM)
#3. Confirmation bias.
Confirmation bias down-plays new information.
Decisive leaders find reasons to justify decisions and minimize disconfirming information.
Decisive leaders tend to develop over-confidence once decisions are made.
You tend to underestimate the time and difficult of climbing hills that others climb, but you don’t. You also tend to over-estimate the abilities of others.
Frustration and disappointment set in when over-confidence under-estimates obstacles and downplays risk.
#5. Illusion of control.
Talking makes achievement seem easy, but action bursts the illusion of control.
Sitting around a table making decisions gives the impression of power. But it’s false. The people doing the work understand what it takes to achieve goals.
The illusion of control allows leaders to defend bad decisions.
4 decision-making tips:
- Force yourself to explore options when setting goals. Good decisions begin with multiple options.
- Eliminate options when implementing goals. You can’t do everything at once.
- Ask, “What might go wrong,” if you tend to make quick decisions.
- Plan goal-implementation WITH the people who do the work.
What’s dangerous about decisiveness?
What’s essential for good decision-making?
Bonus material:
Mindset Theory of Action Phases (Gollwitzer)
Four Ways to be Better at Making Snap Decisions Without Feeling Guilty (theMuse)
Sometimes I’ve found one needs to make decisions NOW and beg for forgiveness and grace later. If one knows the “right” decision to make and one understands the consequences and has had experience with similar decisions and a decision is needed you make it. Too often I’ve found others because of bureaucratic road blocks are hesitant to make a decision waiting for approval. I’ve not had to take this action often but when I’ve done so, I’ve always been right and done what was needed. I’ve always had others come back and say you should have asked and I would say, “was it the right decision to make at that time” and always they’ve said YES. Then I say “thank you” for the approval. It bugs most but when you got to get the job done you do it. I guess you can continue to say I’m the guy that takes the road less traveled (the left one at the fork) when others wait or go the right road.
Thanks Roger. You’re bringing up some ideas I want to write about next week. For example, if you’re going to be decisive, be an expert in that area or listen to experts.
I’m glad you added your insights.
Even more so understand the implications, the boundaries and short, medium and long term moves. In these virus days one has to be careful on who is an expert and even if they are what their agenda might be. I’ll just say look at Dr. Fauci and some of his inconsistencies and the hypocrisy behind.
What’s essential for good decision-making?
Consider both the hard data and soft data when making decisions?
• Hard Data refers to the numbers and facts—statements that are concrete and provable.
• Soft Data refers to people’s feelings and emotions–how people feel about the current situation.
The numbers may explain what’s happening, but the numbers don’t explain why things are happening or how people feel about what’s happening.
If you have a lot of experience with the problem /issue–you can rely more heavily on your gut. If you have little or no experience with the problem, study the numbers.
Thanks Paul. Very helpful distinction between hard data and soft data. On the soft side, a decisive leader needs to understand the horses in the barn.
It’s especially easy if the leader can make blame any failures of the decision on others. Decisiveness is still a positive trait if somebody else deals with the consequences, right?
LOL…that’s the truth, Mitch. It’s easy for a blamer to be decisive. It feels like a short-term strategy, but blame is definitely easier than responsibility in the short-term.
I once had a boss who said to me – I would rather make a decision now and be 80% right rather than wait two weeks and be 100% right.
This disturbed me at the time and proved to be his undoing. Autocratic, he thought he was above consultation and managed to restructure our organization that didn’t work. It became dysfunctional. I might add, he came from the military where this may work when faced with life and death situations.
The moral of the story, making quick decisions isn’t always the best answer, making considered decisions with those who are more experienced allows for better decision making.
Thanks Carolyn. I can identify with your former boss on both ends of the illustration. Let’s just go… 80% is good enough. I think it depends on the risk of the decision, as well as the impact/importance.
Having said that, you’ve added an important story to the conversation.
One thing to watch out for is how your decision affects others. I have worked with someone who sees a need and fills it but doesn’t think about the things that need to happen with others to get there. For example: a person leaves, he sees the need to hire someone to fill the position as fast as possible. The minute he hires someone they start (job offer Friday, accept Sunday, start Monday). Said person starts Monday without any info from HR, IT or even a computer to be able to check her email (that isn’t set up) on. The HR and IT dept then have to scramble Monday morning to set her up with no warning, making them upset and making on boarding/training the new person difficult. Hind sight always seems to be 20/20.
Great point. Systems thinking–connecting all the dots is critical.