Recently I asked a client to name the top leadership qualities she admired in her current role model, who also happens to be the new leader of her company. Without hesitation she replied, “They are thoughtful, inquisitive, and decisive. That’s something I haven’t seen in senior leadership in quite some time.”
She went on to describe how the leader listened to a complex situation that didn’t have a clear solution. Rather than jumping straight into “solution mode” this executive got curious, asked a lot of questions, including what her overall assessments and recommendations would be, and why. Most importantly, he assessed the level of urgency.
Based on the information available, after assessing the impact to both people and business needs, as well as the time sensitivity, he made a clear, thoughtful decision including his rationale.
It shouldn’t sound so unusual, but it does. Why?
Perhaps we have diluted the importance of decision making as a leadership strength? After reviewing the core competency lists of dozens of companies, it was enlightening to find “problem-solving and decision making” consistently bundled together as one leadership behavior. But they aren’t. Which got me wondering: Is there perhaps an uneven focus on the problem-solving side of that equation?
Leaders are overloaded with access to data and information, bogged down by organizational dynamics (i.e. a consensus culture), a lack of clarity around who is the final decision-maker, and risk tolerance (or lack of) that it becomes seductive to get caught up in the meetings, discussions, problem solving side. Because heck – that feels like solid, collaborative leadership. Right?
Wrong.
Several months ago I wrote an article on this topic (Can You Make Tough Decisions?) that included an impactful quote from the HBO limited series, Band of Brothers:
“He wasn’t a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions.”
Ultimately, it is the job of a leader to make decisions. Sometimes they are unpopular decisions, with real people or organizational impacts. But, it’s not a leader’s job to be popular. It is to be informed and to do what is right based on the available information.
According to a 2023 McKinsey survey of over 1,200 global business leaders, inefficient decision making is costing Fortune 500 companies 530,000 hours of managers’ time. That equates to $250 million in wages. That’s a lot of people. Time. And, most likely, eventual cost-cutting initiatives (and more decisions!).
What can be done to right this ship?
Get curious and ask the right questions. Clarify who is the final decision-maker, and ensure they are close to the work – thus promoting empowerment and accountability. And accept that there might be mistakes. In the end, isn’t an informed, imperfect decision better than none at all?
