I worked for two executives with very different styles in my first job out of college.  The first executive, Tom, was a polished professional that liked to study a problem, gather the facts, look at the situation from all angles and then sleep on it.  And sleep on it.  And sleep on it some more.  Tom would rarely make a decision and when he did, so much time had elapsed that his team had moved on and made the decision for themselves.  (Often choosing a very different direction than the one Tom had finally decided upon.) 

The firm’s other key executive, Mike, would quickly frame an issue, ask for input and decide.  Mike was less concerned about developing what he believed was the perfect answer, and he clearly did not fear being wrong.  If he made a mistake, he had no qualms about admitting his error, adjusting his course and plowing ahead.  I decided very early that I would strive to be like Mike and not like Tom.

Timely decision-making on the part of a leader is an essential ingredient for success. A leader’s decision-making speed sets the pace for a team and influences the working environment in a number of positive ways.  Rapid decision-making enables action and encourages team members to experiment in pursuit of innovation.  It has been my experience that this style of leader tends to actually make fewer direct decisions and instead encourages and enables team members to make the call themselves. The added benefit of this style is the development of trust between all parties and the creation and strengthening of a sense of empowerment for the manager’s team members. 

The opposite is true for the "Never Make A Decision" leadership style like Tom’s.   The inability to make a decision in a reasonable time frame slows progress to a crawl, breeds frustration and malaise and forces team members to look for ways to avoid raising the important issues for fear that they will never be addressed.  While there is something to be said for the creativity that the employees of this intrepid leader develop in pursuit of bypassing key decision points, it is not a healthy situation.

One area in particular where the "Never Make A Decision" style damages or cripples a team is around key personnel decisions.  It’s not uncommon for these types of leaders to prolong indefinitely the termination of someone who has proven that they don’t have the skills, shared values or temperament to contribute effectively to the team.  While it is painfully obvious to everyone else that the person needs to go, the leader gets caught up in the mostly imaginary demons of fear, uncertainty and doubt.  In my experience in coaching these types of leaders, they always know in their gut or their heart what the right decision is, but they create their own obstacles to making the final call either to avoid the situation or in the nice but naive hope that the situation will fix itself.

The bottom-line:

–Recognize that your style has a profound impact on the pace and ultimate performance of your team and strive to enable action, not stifle it.

–Accept that you will rarely (never) have perfect information, and while you should aim before you fire, it is OK to make a call on gut instinct.  I am a firm believer that your first instinct is usually the right one.  My biggest mistakes have been when I did not trust my gut.

–One of your core responsibilities as a leader is to help your associates develop their own decision-making skills.  Encourage them to state their issues to you in the form of recommendations versus questions.  Ask questions to test their thinking and where necessary, send them back to dig harder for the right answer, but always let them come to their own conclusion.  As the individuals prove capable of making effective decisions, your confidence in their abilities will prove infectious for the decision-making culture of your team.

–Never delay on a key personnel decision hoping that it will right itself.  Always be fair, always provide effective feedback and seek constructive behavior change with problem employees, and when it doesn’t work, act expediently.  Anything else spells disaster for morale, productivity and commitment.

And finally, recognize that it is OK for you and others to be wrong.  Don’t work to hide mistakes, but rather make them visible and leverage them as powerful learning opportunities.  While I never want to see someone make the same mistake twice, a culture that encourages and desires innovation must embrace experimentation.  Instead of the perfection that Tom and the "Never Make A Decision" leaders are seeking, opt for the approach that leads to action, empowerment and learning.  In this case, it’s good to be like Mike.