The 2 Decision Pressures Every Leader Faces
Despite differences in organizational type, size, and resources, every leader faces challenges on how to handle their decision-making power.
Over the years, I have worked with leaders from different types of organizations, from tiny nonprofits to large foundations to government agencies. Despite differences in type, size, and resources, every leader faces the same challenge: how to handle decision-making.
Every executive leads differently. Some lead in hierarchical, top-down ways. Others are more democratic, using staff buy-in models. Others make big decisions in groups, either in a pair (e.g., the Executive Director and a Deputy) or with a leadership team.
No matter the type of organization, I have seen leaders struggle the most in two areas in their decision-making:
Documenting decisions
Assigning clear decision rights
Lessons In Leadership Series
This blog post is the second in a series where I share lessons learned and takeaways from my clients after 10 years in business. To recap, I kicked off the series with the first lesson about “Switching it Up” to encourage you to give yourself permission to lead and build differently according to what works for you and your team, not what works for someone else (see below).
Few leaders document their decisions.
The first challenge is an administrative one, as most leaders do not document their decisions. You may be thinking why does that matter? So, if a manager misses an important budget discussion that resulted in a particular decision, how will it be communicated back? Other questions may emerge like:
What if the decision negatively impacts my team?
Where does that decision live once it's been made?
Not having ready answers to these questions has prompted many managers to either call into the meeting or drag themselves (sick and all) into the office. I raise this example because it seems small, but it isn’t. Many managers feel pressure to be in every meeting. All the time. They fear missing something important because there aren't established processes to document decisions. The pressure to always be present is where the inequity comes in. It also leads to burnout.
Clear decision rights improve cross-team collaboration.
The second area of decision-making where I have seen leaders struggle most is assigning decision rights in implementation. So, after a decision is made, who can make adjustments, and when? I think accountability is the most delicate at this stage of decision-making. By that, I mean how team members hold themselves responsible for their role in implementing decisions (even ones they don’t agree with) while honoring the integrity of the process. In short, it's how your team takes responsibility.
Most challenges with decision rights stem from trust gaps, asymmetrical access to information, and unclear roles. When these challenges happen at the same time in a leadership team, the result is usually that every director is involved in every decision and has to attend every meeting. That's a surefire way to spot the problem. Additionally, project management frameworks like MOCHA or RACI don’t work in teams with this kind of decision-making dynamic.
I wish I could share an easy 1-2-3 solution. There isn’t one.
This leadership challenge isn't just about a technical process. It’s adaptive. Because it’s an adaptive challenge, leaders and their teams have to name it and work through it together.
Accountability is the next lesson.
Next week, I’ll share Lesson #3 in the series: accountability. Subscribe to my email list to have the series delivered to your inbox.
