https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leadership-how-coach-good-decision-making-johan-steynberg
Making good decisions is probably the number one character trait or behavior of a good leader. Yes, I know leaders have to inspire, have empathy, lead from the front etc. But underlying all of that is decision-making…because, let’s be honest, people will find it hard to follow leaders who make poor decisions, even if they are nice people.
As a quick reminder, good decisions come from:
- Knowing and understanding context. For executives, this includes company strategy, macro-trends, the capabilities available or to be built, domain knowledge, and data analysis across the relevant operational areas.
- Being clear on what the required outcome(s) should be, and how we will know if we are successful
- Having a good idea of the plan to get to the outcome(s), and what the impact of specific decisions will be on how the plan progresses
- Identified and analyzed what the risks are, by impact and priority
- Hearing what others have to say on 1-4
- Clear communication of the decision.
Experienced leaders tend to instinctively follow this process, albeit sometimes with flawed assumptions, and many times letting ego drive decisions more than letting the facts drive. I also just want to be clear that the buck stops somewhere, and leaders cannot be paralyzed by trying to seek endless data or consensus.
We have seen some excellent examples of good leaders that follow this process, like Steve Jobs, Andy Grove, Larry Ellison and Jorma Ollila.
But how do we, as leaders, coach our own leaders to be confident in their decisions? Organizations don’t grow and scale if we don’t develop leaders. More importantly though, helping others grow in their careers as professionals and people should always be a top priority for us.
We have to coach both the technical/management aspects, as well as the behaviors that encompass decision-making.
When I see upcoming leaders, there seems to be an inordinate amount of fear and trepidation of getting something wrong. So, I like to say that the worst thing that can happen is that we end up living in a van by the river…but there is a whole lot of things that need to happen before we get there. So far, thankfully, no-one from my teams has ended up in a van by the river.
No-one makes bad decisions on purpose (unless they want to sabotage your business). Furthermore, most decisions that drive impact will have some margin of error, and unless we are completely oblivious of the facts (or letting ego drive), it won’t be 100% wrong either.
When coaching young leaders in this fundamental skill, here is what I propose:
- Encourage decision-making. Offer to collaborate as necessary, but, if it appears our young leader lacks confidence, we need to take the eagle approach of kicking them out of the metaphorical nest.
- When working with an upcoming leader, follow the structure above. Sometimes I like to start from the outcome and work backwards. With more strategic decisions we take it from the top.
- Review the context areas and make sure there is a thorough understanding of the data points that influence the decision(s).
- Review the expected outcomes, and how good our understanding of that really is. Ask questions like:
- What are we trying to achieve, and what is the impact if we do?
- Has the customer agreed that these are the required outcomes? Is it captured somewhere with their input and agreement?
- Do these outcomes align with what we think are best for our customer?
- Do we have the means to meet the required outcomes?
- Review the plan. Review the Plan. Review the plan. Did I mention to review the plan? A good plan has timelines, tasks, resources, and budget. It is the bedrock of how we achieve outcomes, and the decisions we make here around investment and promise are the most impactful.
- Explore risks. Do this by identifying potential risks, quantify by impact and what it would take mitigate or remove risk, or if we choose to accept the risk.
- Determine the upcoming leader’s confidence in achieving the outcome. We are typically looking for bravado or fear. Something in between is good, but 100% bluster, as well as hesitation should be further explored.
- Let the leaders lead. Remember where I said the buck has to stop somewhere? Our upcoming leader needs to have a strong sense that the buck stops with them. We all have safety nets, but that doesn’t absolve us of being held accountable for our decisions.
In summary, coaching upcoming leaders is a combination of questioning, guiding, and showing. Depending on the individual, one may emphasize one area more, but it must include all three. Using a framework is critical since we need a structured way to communicate and build thought processes for leaders.
As always, interested in your thoughts and feedback.