How Can Managers Improve Their Decision-Making Skills

This is not your typical advice about improving decision-making by giving glib suggestions that don’t address what lies underneath decision-making processes (such as ensuring all team members have a voice, generating and analysing options, trusting your instincts, etc.). Instead, this is a different approach to decision-making that goes right to the heart of the matter, with three ways of using managerial authority.

Each of these three approaches is needed in different situations, allowing you as a manager to either take quick, decisive action yourself, foster commitment and motivation in your team when needed, and avoid the overwhelm and bottlenecks of being in the middle of everything.

You probably already know that it’s not always possible to have all three of these at the same time! This blog explains how you can develop the awareness and flexibility to use the best one for any situation so that you can achieve as much of the three of these as possible. 

Decision-Making Techniques for Managers

1. Don’t Be Wishy-Washy - Own Your Decisions

You don’t want to be seen as someone who doesn’t own your managerial authority and never makes decisions. Sometimes, you need to own it and make a decision when it’s clear that a decision is yours to take as a manager. For example, you may need to provide direction or priorities for other team members, get something done, or role-model decisiveness for your team members.

In these situations, while you may need to gather input from team members or stakeholders before making a decision, it’s equally important to communicate clearly that you own the decision. This means making it clear that while you value input, the final call lies with you. Once you’ve decided, assign actions and communicate clearly what decision has been made.

Also Read : What is the importance of decision making?

2. Don’t Be a Dictator - Share Decisions

While it’s important to own your decisions when necessary, you probably don’t want to do this all of the time, and so be a Dictator! There are occasions when it’s more beneficial to foster commitment and motivation in your team for them to implement a decision.

Engaging your team in the decision-making process not only enhances buy-in but also cultivates a sense of ownership among team members and if done well, can get a better result than any single person could get on their own.

This means using a structured process for collective decision-making so that the decision is clearly made by the team together, not you as the manager, such as voting or consent-based methods. This approach is particularly effective in complex situations where multiple perspectives must be considered and where the collective intelligence of a team is needed.

For example, deciding an organisational strategy, dealing with a tricky customer problem that someone feels stuck with, or finding a solution to a situation faced by multiple team members about their expense claims that they will need to implement the solution for. 

3. Don’t Micro-Manage - Distribute Decisions

In today’s fast-paced work environment, you cannot afford to be a micro-manager. You’re likely overwhelmed with responsibilities, and having every decision come to you for approval is not possible! Plus, your reports and team members probably won’t like it. Instead, empower your reports and team members to take ownership of their roles and make decisions independently.

However, it’s crucial to establish clear guidelines for decision-making to avoid confusion. You don’t want to be perceived as the manager who delegates decisions but later countermands them. It can severely damage trust and morale within the team.

One effective method to distribute decision-making is through the use of Role Clarity in self-managing teams and frameworks like Holacracy. These models define roles and accountabilities clearly, allowing individuals to operate autonomously while still being aligned with the team’s objectives.

By using role definitions in transparent governance records, you can ensure that team members understand their decision-making authority and the parameters within which they operate. These ways of working enable teams to thrive in a decentralised decision-making environment. But for this option to work, it does need some investment to create the role clarity to be able to rely on and refer to.

For example, having a role with Accountability for ‘Publishing dates for training events after getting a ‘No Objection’ from the Trainer and Training Logistics roles’ makes it clear that someone can go ahead and do it, and the conditions they need to meet to be able to do it, so that the relevant roles will be checked with, and as the Manager it doesn’t need to go through you. 

The Manager Decision-Making Process

Assess the level of support needed to implement the decision.

Decisions that need more support from team members/those who will implement the decision have high stakes, long-term impact, tough problems, high investment, and where people will have high autonomy in the implementation. These decisions normally need more participation from those who will be actually doing the implementation and take more time to decide. These decisions are more shared (technique 2). 

Assess the amount of time available to make the decision.

The amount of time can be a critical factor. More participation obviously requires more time. But you don’t want to spend ages on a decision that needs little support from others and which you or someone else could easily make on their own. And you don’t want to make a quick autocratic decision that others have to implement when there is time for them to give input. Both of these drain energy and motivation. Thus, you need to consciously consider the time available. 

Choose the decision-making technique from above, which optimises and balances the amount of support needed with the time available in the situation.

So aim to get the balance right to optimise the amount of input needed for the level of support needed in implementing a decision, with the amount of time available. Then choose between the options above of whether to fully own the decision yourself, maybe with some input, or make it a shared decision with lots of participation from others, or to distribute it to clearly defined roles.

FAQ

Why Decision-Making is Important for Managers?

Getting Stuff Done

Sometimes, as a manager, you need to decide to move things along and get stuff done. The ability to make timely decisions is a vital skill that helps maintain momentum and productivity within the team. When decisions are delayed, projects can stall, and opportunities can be lost.

Unleash Your Team’s Collective Intelligence

In complex situations where there are competing interests and perspectives, one person can’t see the whole picture and make the best decision. You need a way to surface and then work with multiple perspectives, allowing and integrating objections where necessary. Using a shared decision-making process that unleashes a team’s collective intelligence ensures that the decision made by the team is a better one than any individual could have made on their own.

Respond & Adapt to a Fast-Changing World

In our VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world, organisations must be agile and responsive. Empowering your team to make decisions at the right level allows for quicker responses to changing circumstances. This decentralisation not only enhances agility but also fosters a culture of resilience and adaptability.

Role-Model Decision-Making for Distributed Leadership

As a manager, your approach to decision-making sets the tone for your team. By demonstrating effective decision-making practices, you role-model the behaviours you want to see in your team. This not only builds trust but also encourages team members to take initiative and ownership of their decisions.

Challenges Faced by Managers in Decision-Making and How to Overcome Them

Lack of Time & Information

One of the most common challenges managers face is the lack of time to make informed decisions. To overcome this, prioritise decision-making tasks and allocate specific time blocks for gathering information and analysis. Utilise tools such as decision matrices to streamline the process.

Lack of Authority

Sometimes, managers may feel they lack the authority to make decisions. Establishing clear governance structures and role definitions can empower managers to take ownership and make decisions confidently. Overcoming this may mean managing upwards to get this clarity from your managers to clearly define the authority that you do (and don’t) have. 

Lack of Confidence

Building confidence in decision-making comes with experience and practice. If you lack confidence, then try out some of the different options suggested here. Overcoming this may require getting some training, for example, in the three techniques outlined here.

Decision-making is a sadly neglected managerial skill that people are often just supposed to know how to do. And this is very hard in today’s complex and fast-changing world where people expect to have a voice, and it’s not always possible to give it to them. 

Lack of a Good Process

Having a structured decision-making process in place for when you make shared decisions together is essential. There are many different processes to support shared decision-making that are more sophisticated than the bog-standard majority vote or simply trying to get consensus from everyone. Overcoming this may require getting some training in collective decision-making methods. 

Lack of Role Clarity to Distribute Decision-Making

Overcoming this means ensuring that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined within your team. This clarity will enable team members to understand their decision-making authority and take ownership of their roles, reducing bottlenecks and enhancing overall team performance.

Which Models of Decision-Making Describe How Managers 

Actually Make Decisions?

Understanding the various decision-making models can help managers choose the most effective approach for their situation. Here are a few common models:

1. Autocratic Decision-Making: The manager makes decisions unilaterally, often in situations that require quick action. Input may be sought from team members, but the manager ultimately retains the authority to make the final decision. This model is effective in emergencies but can stifle team engagement if overused.

2. Democratic Decision-Making: In this model, the manager uses a participatory and inclusive process to make a decision together so that the manager is not deciding on their own. Even though a manager may need to take ultimate responsibility for the decision, any conditions or restrictions in the final result need to be included in the process. When done well, this collaborative approach fosters buy-in and commitment from team members.

3. Distributed Decision-Making: Roles in the team are clearly defined, including assigning decision-making authority and any conditions or restrictions needed, and then individuals are empowered to act and decide without needing to always come to the manager or rest of the team for approval. 

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By understanding these models and applying them appropriately, managers can enhance their decision-making effectiveness and foster a culture of collaboration and empowerment within their teams.

If you’d like to find out more about how to use these techniques in your decision-making, then check out our Team Clarity & Faster Decision-Making in 3 steps in 3 months online program and take our free Team Needs Check to see if your team needs help with enhancing their decision-making capabilities. 

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This blog serves as a continuation of our commitment to improving decision-making within organisations. Stay tuned for our next instalment, where we will delve deeper into the practical tools that can support effective decision-making in various team structures.

For more insights and resources, visit our website. Together, let’s evolve and adapt to the challenges of our dynamic world.