Hey, it’s Wednesday. How are you doing on your leadership priorities this week? If you are starting to feel the week slip away from you, here’s a blunt reminder and a few tips to focus on your true priorities. The week’s not over yet…and victory is still within your reach. It’s time to fight off the fires and push away from the urgent-unimportant.
While Mission is the “reason for being” of a firm, the organization’s clearly stated Values are supposed to define critical behaviors, offer context for decision-making and generally serve as bedrock for defining culture. And like Mission descriptions, the Values are often collections of lofty thoughts that are so far removed from the minds and actions of employees as to be nearly useless.
While some top executives err on the side of asserting a dictatorial style of leadership that poisons the working environment and stifles independent action, in my experience, many more struggle with just the opposite. Instead of overwhelming their associates with strict orders in pursuit of rigid targets, they default on their responsibility to set direction in a poorly constructed attempt to create an environment of empowerment. The results of this approach include endless discussions without resultant actions and massive frustration of well-intended personnel that want to move projects and ideas forward.
Your decision-making style says a lot about you as a leader. Some people make a lot of decisions with little more than a gut hunch to guide them and others spend a lot of time gathering insights and information to support their decision. Others struggle to make decisions on anything and might still be considering what to order for breakfast when it’s time for dinner. And still others avoid making decisions because taking a stand increases the odds that they will be held accountable for results.
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.
