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There are 46,900,000 definitions of leadership according to the oracle known as
Making difficult decisions is one aspect that separates strong leaders from weak ones, professionals from amateurs. A good leader is one who can subjugate oneself to the broader mission and make decisions without emotional attachment that serves the organization’s purpose and people.
Of course, having the right information to decide and a process to do so is critical, as a limited flow of information restricts the potential for superior performance. Figure one (below) highlights two driving forces behind decision-making: information and speed—or the rate of change. As information becomes more readily available, the potential for quality decision-making increases. However, once speed is introduced and the pressure of the day builds, the time it takes to gloss over the “right” information ebbs away and you’re left with the challenge that businesses face today: the need to make timely decisions with limited context in a constantly changing environment.
To avoid the pitfalls of complexity that impact decision-making in today’s world requires a concerted effort to communicate up, down and across business functions, and the main remedy to poor quality decisions in an environment where change is paramount is the process of generating more information to the right people.
Figures two and three depict what happens to one’s decision-making space as more relevant information comes in. The large arrow represents the direction or intent of one’s business division or company—its mission or purpose. The dotted arrow lines represent the space or amount of authority he or she has to operate in to make decisions.
The difference between figures two and three is that as more information is shared, one’s decision-making space increases such that he or she can make a greater impact that serves the organization.
Sharing Information
There’s a significant balancing act between quantity and quality, and one way to bridge the knowledge gap between the two is by sharing information (see figure four).
In the above diagrams, the quantity and quality of decisions share an equal plane because more employees are “in the know” and can therefore contribute. An employee’s decision-making authority can help or hinder productivity at all levels. If Joe, a senior director at company X, doesn’t have the context of his senior leadership team’s goals and objectives, then he cannot operationalize strategy. Conversely, if the executive leadership team doesn’t share their intentions or short and long term plans with direct reports then the burden of execution is on them.
If, in the SEAL Teams, for instance, we had been on a mission where only half the team received the word about enemy movement to our east then we would have lost the tactical advantage (or market share). By sharing information with the rest of the team such as mission criteria and situation reports about the terrain and enemy (or market and competitors), we enabled each team member the autonomy to think and act independently while aiming towards a common objective. This way, even with the increase in speed as the snowball of complexity built, numerous decisions took place but quality was maintained, as in figure five (above).
When Information Isn’t Enough: Process Over Analysis
Of course, information by itself isn’t everything. If your new goal is to wake up every morning and go for a run before heading into work then you could write down all the reasons for why you should—effectively analyzing the why behind your new found desire. However, once five am arrives, that once burning flame of motivation that shone so brightly yesterday has fizzled out as the thought of getting out of bed, walking all the way over to your closet to change clothes and put on running shoes and, even worse, sweating so early in the morning is entirely too much to think about at this moment in time. So instead, you roll back over and try to pick up where your dream left off.
What just happened was this: your environment wasn’t set up properly to facilitate your decision. If you set up your bedroom (or wherever you sleep) for a more receptive process of decision-making, the barrier to getting out of bed withers away. For example, a more conducive environment to help facilitate your choice would be to sleep in your running clothes, place your alarm clock across the room, and have your running shoes right next to your bed so that all you have to do is wake up and swing your legs off the bedside and voila! You’re ready to go. You could even add time (i.e. speed/rate of change) to help facilitate your decision by giving yourself one minute to get out of bed.
What this hypothetical example shows is this. Having accurate information is important, but without the right process to go about operationalizing that knowledge, it’s just information. A solid process is just as important to one’s decision-making space as the information itself, and the more information employees receive—regardless of rank or tenure—the more their decision-making space widens—and their abilities to act.
