Decisiveness – how willing are you?

With an increased focus on self-responsibility, most organizations expect their employees to make decisions. Consequently, decisiveness is a key competence for those in leadership positions and beyond.

Decisiveness is different to decision making. Decision making is the ability to make quick, confident, and effective decisions. Decisiveness is the willingness to make the decision. High quality decisions require both decision-making skills and decisiveness.

So, What Gets in the Way of our Willingness?

The willingness to make decisions is closely linked to our personality type and thinking style. When you better understand how you behave in different decision-making situations, you can start to work on your strong and weak points.

Based on the principles of Myers-Briggs in the MBTI, our decision making style can fall into four preferences. Each preference has its own obstacles.

Analytical

Analytical people are likely to say, ‘Have we thought of everything? ‘Do we have all the information?’ or ‘I need to think about it’.

They will be reluctant to decide until they are sure that all of the information has been logically analysed and considered. They are happier when a structured process has been followed.

Driver

Drivers are likely to say, ‘Just do this,’ ‘I don’t care what you do just make a decision,’ or ‘Let me know when you have made a decision’ (while I get on with more important things).

They are confident to make practical and quick decisions in ambiguous situations based on common sense, experience, and the facts they can see and know right now. If the situation requires more long range analysis, they will leave that to others but will be impatient and push them to make a decision.

Team Player

Team Players are likely to ask, ‘What will others feel about it?’

They will always consider their personal values and the impact of the decision on people. They may be happy to go along with the group consensus and will rarely criticise the opinions of others. When left to themselves they will be reluctant to make an unpopular decision.

 

Intuitor

An Intuitor will ask ‘What if we did this?’ or say ‘We could do this’

An Intuitor will focus on an objective and produce a lot of ideas of their own as well as build on the ideas of others to achieve it. They will find in depth analysis of ideas frustrating. Rather than make a firm decision they will prefer to experiment and try things until they find a solution that works.

 

Ask yourself, which type seems most like me? Is there another type that could be a backup? Do I change my style if I am under pressure?

 

The Ideal  Team for Decision Making

In an ideal world we would have a decision-making team including all four types but unfortunately, we don’t often have that luxury. Usually, we are on our own and feeling pretty stressed. This is when we need to take the time to ask ourselves the questions others would.

Our Analytical partner would ask, Is there a logical conclusion? Can we list the pros and cons of each option? Do we know what the costs of each option are? Can we prioritise options?

A Driver would ask, What do we know about the situation? What are the facts? Do we have all the facts? What have we done so far and what were the results? What do we need to accomplish next?

Our Team Player would ask, Do these answers support or violate our values? How will people (ours, customers, vendors) react to the outcome? Who will commit to putting in the sacrifice needed to accomplish these goals?

And an Intuitor would ask, Where are we trying to go? What should the end results be? Have we considered multiple possibilities? What does the data seem to imply?

Conclusion

Having answered our imaginary team, we will be better placed to have the willingness to make that decision and the confidence to stand by it.

Delegate to Increase Productivity

Delegation is a necessary and vital tool for Managers if you want your team to be productive. But letting go and allowing your team members to take on tasks and projects can be scary.

productive

Common Challenges

 

Do any of the following statements sound familiar to you?

    • It takes too long to explain
    • It’s easier to do it myself
    • They’re not able to do it the way I want it done
    • It is too risky

 

If yes, then know you are not alone. But also know that if you keep using these excuses, you won’t save time, develop others, or reduce your stress levels. More importantly productivity will fall and so will your reputation as a Manager.

 

Underlying many of these excuses is that the Manager doesn’t feel they have the skills to delegate effectively and fears failure. However, when you successfully delegate, you give and receive far more value than you may realise.

 

productive

 

So why should I delegate?

There are many benefits to effective delegation, not least reduction of your own stress levels, but today I want to focus on the direct impact on productivity.

Too often Managers are reluctant to delegate responsibility for decision making as they feel it takes away their authority. However, this creates a decision making bottleneck that can be costly. When staff are empowered to complete a task and make decisions, there’s less waiting around for the manager to sign off. Things get done! And when things get done, the sense of achievement is increased, which improves motivation and job satisfaction.

Managers are also guilty of not delegating work of high return or value. By taking the time to coach staff and enabling them to take on these responsibilities gives them the opportunity to challenge themselves and loyalty and productivity improves as a result. Or at least it doesn’t decrease.

Finally, by empowering your team, the work will still be conducted in your absence without unnecessary delays.

What should I delegate?

Instead of thinking that you need to do everything, take a look at the tasks and work on your desk and place each into the appropriate box below.

 

productiveI must do

This box is for work that only you have the authority to do, work with short deadlines and work that only you have the skills and knowledge to do.

I must do, others can help

Remember, helping is not delegating. This is an opportunity to coach someone in part of a task or project in preparation for them taking responsibility at a later date.

Others can do, I can help

this is work you will delegate full responsibility for to someone else. You will coach and help them, but they will be responsible from now on

Others can do – Delegation

this is work you are confident to delegate full responsibility for without the need to spend much time coaching.

productive

 

This technique not only helps you to prioritise your own work, it also ensures that you are not always delegating work to the same people you feel you are able to rely on to do a good job immediately.  It helps you to focus on where you need to provide coaching or assistance and informs your team development plan.

Final Thoughts

remember, delegation is not about dumping the work you don’t like onto others, it is about creating a more skilled and versatile team. Employees who feel respected, trusted, and valued are more productive and more efficient.