Tag: decision making

Leading Edge – Volume 59 – 3 Keys: Critical Thinking

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3 Keys:  Critical Thinking

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Aegis Learning Edge is in Impact, Value and Results
  • Everything DiSC Catalyst Online Learning from Aegis Learning
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  • DiSC Style and Interaction Guides from Aegis Learning
  • DiSC and Five Behaviors Certification Training
  • Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Facilitation Kit from Aegis Learning
  • Everything DiSC Facilitation Kits from Aegis Learning
  • Leadership IMPACT Webinar Series
  • A Heart for Leadership by Tim Schneider
  • Everything DiSC Agile EQ from Aegis Learning
  • Five Behaviors Personal Development

Leading Edge – Volume 58 – 3 Keys: Likeability

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3 Keys:  Likeability

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Aegis Learning Edge is in Impact, Value and Results
  • Everything DiSC Catalyst Online Learning from Aegis Learning
  • Everything DiSC Training Aides and Extras from Aegis Learning
  • DiSC Style and Interaction Guides from Aegis Learning
  • DiSC and Five Behaviors Certification Training
  • Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Facilitation Kit from Aegis Learning
  • Everything DiSC Facilitation Kits from Aegis Learning
  • Leadership IMPACT Webinar Series
  • A Heart for Leadership by Tim Schneider
  • Everything DiSC Agile EQ from Aegis Learning
  • Five Behaviors Personal Development

Leading Edge – Volume 57 – 3 Keys: Decision Making

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3 Keys:  Decision Making

For more on this subject and other great articles in this issue:

More Articles

Aegis Learning Edge is in Impact, Value and Results
  • Everything DiSC Catalyst Online Learning from Aegis Learning
  • Everything DiSC Training Aides and Extras from Aegis Learning
  • DiSC Style and Interaction Guides from Aegis Learning
  • DiSC and Five Behaviors Certification Training
  • Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Facilitation Kit from Aegis Learning
  • Everything DiSC Facilitation Kits from Aegis Learning
  • Leadership IMPACT Webinar Series
  • A Heart for Leadership by Tim Schneider
  • Everything DiSC Agile EQ from Aegis Learning
  • Five Behaviors Personal Development

Collaborative Decision Making

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Tim Schneider, Coach, Speaker, Author and Trainer from Aegis Learning

Better Decisions Require Input and Collaboration

By Tim Schneider

Two great leadership fears are associated with collaborative decision making. Like most fears, they are baseless and concocted by the enemy that resides on your shoulders.

Some people in leadership positions fear using a collaborative approach in decision making because it would make them look weak and indecisive. Nothing could be further from the truth. First, the leader always retains the right and responsibility to make the final decision and veto the input from others. This is not always prudent but no one removes a leader’s ability to make the final choice after seeking input and collaboration.

The other fear that leaders often connect to collaborative decision making is that through seeking input the decision will become a popularity contest and the pig with the best lipstick will win. Again this is a baseless fear and collaboration is not about incorporating democracy and voting to an issue, it is simply about seeking input.

To obtain collaboration, the leader must create an environment in which team members and peer leaders feel safe and that their opinion is valued. There can be no besmirching, belittling or dismissing of input. All input, even those contrary to your opinion must be appreciated and valued. This is not about changing your mind but about selecting the best course of action and decision for the organization.

Many traditional methods of collaboration don’t work. Brain storming and the unwarned introduction of a topic yield very little results. To get someone’s thoughts on a subject, process or decision point, effective leaders have found that a private, direct and previewed approach work best. The leader will announce that one of the subjects during one-on-one meetings will be a particular decision or direction element and that gives team members or peers a chance to think about it and process their own conclusions. The privacy element also reduces any team member’s trepidation about public comment or fear of embarrassment.

Collaboration also implies that the leader will be open to suggestions and different perspectives. If that is not the case, future attempts at collaboration and seeking input will be hampered.

A collaborative approach to decision making is more time consuming and requires more effort but it yields significantly better decisions when done well. Ownership of the decision is enhanced through feedback and input. Unintended consequences are uncovered. Different perspectives are considered. New ideas are found.

Tim Schneider

Tim Schneider is the founder, CEO and lead facilitator for Aegis Learning.  

The Levels of Decision Making

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Reduce Rash Decisions

Tim Schneider, Coach, Speaker, Author and Trainer from Aegis Learning

By Tim Schneider

It is important to note that not all decisions are created equally nor do they require the same type of thought and analysis.

To improve the ability to make decisions, effective leaders must first analyze and determine the decision level in which they are dealing. There are basically five levels of decision making and each have a different set of consequences and impacts.

Rudimentary decisions are those base levels of decisions that you process on a reactionary and almost automatic mode. Should I go to the bathroom? Should I eat now or later? Should I use this word or another, more colorful word? These are processed in very quick terms with little thought and usually very little impact. The sphere of impact is limited usually to you and you alone.

Operational level decisions are those decisions that are usually produced in the day-to-day flow of business operations and many times dictated by a formalized authority matrix. Approving checks, signing requests for time off, authorizing refunds, providing credit and allowing overtime are common examples of operational level decisions.

A significant issue in many businesses is that too many operational level decisions require far too high of a level of approval. The most healthy organizations press down decision making authorities to the most appropriate level and require line level team members to make the bulk of operational decisions, especially those that affect customers or end users. When decisions are consistently pressed upward, organizational efficiency is dramatically reduced and the ability of a company to respond to customer needs and changing environments is impaired.

Ninety percent of all operational level decisions should be made at the team member level. If more than ten percent of operational decisions are coming up to a leadership level, there is wasted time and efficiency could be improved. Some leaders, not the effective ones, are very comfortable in making more than ten percent of the operational level decisions because it insures their importance and reinforces their need to the team.

Tactical decisions are those that affect how business is done. This is more related to the mission than to the vision of an organization. Common tactical level decisions include staffing levels, scheduling, budget submissions, procedural elements and processes. Tactical decisions should be left to the leadership level that is most closely connected to the front line team members. This level of leadership is most expert in the tactics needed to deliver products and services and should be charged with the lion’s share of tactical decision making.

Like with operational decisions, some more senior level leaders like to insert themselves into tactical level decision making. Even with one-up approvals on tactical issues, this will hamper effectiveness and neuter lower level leadership innovation, decision making and ownership.

The next level of decision making is strategic. Strategic decisions define overall direction of an organization or unit within an organization. These are the very important decisions with major impact such as strategic planning, growth or contraction, product lines, pricing, locations and overall corporate strategy. This type of thinking is not limited only to senior and c level leaders but it is most commonly associated with that level in an organization.

With each of the four levels of decision making identified above, there is an increasing bar of impact for each level. Impact increases as the decision level increases and with that, the amount of time, thought and analysis must increase as well. It should not take weeks to make an operational level decision and strategic decisions should not be made in thirty seconds.

Another dynamic of the decision making levels is the longevity of the outcome. Operational level decisions have short life spans while strategic decisions will have lasting and sometimes legacy levels of life. Also with these levels is the ability to unwind the decision. Operational and tactical decisions are relatively easy to reverse while strategic decisions are much harder, more complicated and have a greater cost to change.

As a strategy to reduce rash and arbitrary decision making, triage decisions into the categories above before moving into other decision making steps. This will assist the effective leader in determining the amount of input from others and time required to effect a great decision.

Tim Schneider

Tim Schneider is the founder, CEO and lead facilitator for Aegis Learning.  

Courage for Decisions, Stretching and the Right Thing

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Lead with Courage

Tim Schneider, Coach, Speaker, Author and Trainer from Aegis Learning

By Tim Schneider

Courage to Make Decisions
One of the more interesting organizational dynamics that we have witnessed in the past few years is upward delegation. This really has nothing to do with sending your boss a box of your filing that needs to be done or forwarding your overflow email to your manager. Upward delegation is the hesitancy, reluctance and avoidance of making a decision at the appropriate level and rolling it up to the higher organizational level.

As a symptom of a company’s toxicity, this is pretty predictive. When pervasive, this indicates an organization has not supported past decisions, hyper-criticized decisions, not provided positive feedback when decisions were good and not created leaders that are encouraged to make decisions. This bottlenecked approach will lead to dramatically reduced results and extremely poor morale.

Sometimes upward delegation is dressed in the form of “just wanted you to know” or “just wanted to see what you think.” Benign in presentation, these are just labels for “please make the decision for me” and if it goes bad, I can always come back and say that is what you suggested.
Effective leaders have two distinct responsibilities related to decision making. First, when the decision is appropriate for you and your level in the organization; make it. Think about it, review options and make the decision. Support and defend it if necessary but make the decision.
A special note to the over-thinkers in the group. There will never be all of the information needed to make a decision. You will have to utilize courage and select the most comfortable amount of information available to avoid delay and loss of opportunity. Delayed decisions from leaders also contribute to a significant loss in credibility.

A special note to the gunslinger types. Even though the best decision is often your first decision, take a little time and process consequences and outcomes. You don’t have to be the universal expert that has immediate responses to all situations. Take a little time to avoid pitfalls and unintended consequences and gather some information to support your decision.

Every leader has a little bit different tolerance for decision making, the time required for a decision and the information needed for a proper and correct decision. As a rule of thumb, the decision should come with less information than you are comfortable with but more than just your gut reaction. Timing in decision making is important as well. With delay and deferral, your credibility is lost in the eyes of subordinates and peer team members.

The best decision is the right decision. The next best decision is the wrong decision and the worst decision is no decision.

Courage to Stretch
The 110% myth is just that. A myth.
You are not giving 110%. You are probably giving somewhere around 30% to 40% of your capacity both intellectually and in energy.

Self-challenge is one of the more difficult leadership and work related hurdles you will face. Effective leaders are in a constant mode of self-challenge and self-push and gets them close to true capacity. They are looking for ways to accomplish more, produce more and achieve more. They are looking to kill off unproductive and unrelated behaviors that often derail this effort.
The leader that engages in self-challenge will need some courage to defer unproductive behaviors, avoid idle activities and really extend themselves beyond what they think they could produce.

The courage to stretch also has another side related to management of the status quo compared to true leadership. Many people in a leadership position see themselves as caretakers of the system and guardians of the way we do it now. Effective leaders stretch beyond the boundaries of what is occurring today, no matter how successful it might be, and focus on what the organization can become. This requires the courage to constantly ask questions and push the envelope of performance and innovation that is not always popular or welcome.

Courage to Do the Right Thing
A couple of times in each leader’s career they are faced with a choice about doing the right thing or doing the expedient thing. Thankfully, these types of choices only occur infrequently but they do happen.

Often these types of choices involve dealing with team members or how a team member situation is handled. Many times these choices also involve ethical dilemmas.
You are aware that your boss is harassing a new team member in another department. You have seen it and the team member has confided in you that the harassment is occurring but she needs this job and fears retaliation if she says anything. If you report it, you could face retaliation, up to and including the loss of your job. The easy answer is the put the burden on the team member being harassed but the harder answer is for you to stand up and do the right thing. Could there be consequences? Absolutely. Is reporting the harassment the right thing? Equally absolutely.

Betty is a long term team member in the twilight of her career. She is set to retire in a year but has become increasingly sloppy with her punctuality and is tardy two and three times a week. You have coached her and provided corrective feedback but she scoffed at the interaction and openly talks about her tenure with the company and how you really cannot do anything about it. You know that when you send paperwork to human resources, they are not going to let you discipline her formally. Do you write her up or do you just wait out the retirement party? Is there risks associated with attempting to discipline her at this stage in her career? The effective leader does what is right for the company and the team without deference to individual team member comfort or status. Will this require courage on your part? Yes and a healthy dose of stamina as well.

Some principles are going to be more important that your current job. The effective leader faces these obstacles directly and in a courageous and forthright manner.

Tim Schneider

Tim Schneider is the founder, CEO and lead facilitator for Aegis Learning.