By Russ Hill
I’m seeing a ton of confusion among leaders I’m spending time with these days around two words: decision and discussion.
We elevate individuals into leadership roles for one reason: to make decisions.
We pay them more money in business or give them an elevated status in our civic and religious organizations because of the added stress of the decisions they, and they alone, must make.
Groups don’t make decisions. They are terrible at making decisions. There are too many different perspectives. Too many various opinions. Each of those viewpoints has value and needs to be heard.
Great leaders encourage discussion. They surround themselves with the people who can best inform them on important decisions. Those people should be diverse – with different backgrounds, different opinions, different areas of expertise, and different styles. That allows the leader to make sure he is not living in an echo chamber and deaf to all the implications of his decision.
The purpose of the group that surrounds a leader is to inform the leader. The purpose of the group is NEVER to make a decision.
An incredible amount of time in meetings and emails is wasted because members of the group mistakenly think they are part of the group that will collectively make a decision. They are not the decision-makers. Their role is to generate discussion and inform the leader before she makes a decision.
Once they have offered their perspective their job is to await the decision. If the leader needs to hear from them again she will reach out and ask for additional discussion.
Leaders add to the confusion in two ways. First, too many leaders are scared to make decisions. They don’t want to offend anyone. They don’t want to make the wrong decision. They stall in hopes that more information will come in that will make the right decision more obvious. They try to make the decision a collective matter to protect themselves or to avoid causing offense.
The reality is the decision is theirs and theirs alone. Members of the group may agree with the decision, but they did not make it.
The second way leaders add to the confusion of the role of the group around them is the leader hasn’t established himself as the decision maker. He has allowed the group to believe they’re decision makers rather than contributors to the discussion. This leads to analysis paralysis.
Great leaders establish clarity around their role as the ultimate decision maker. They make sure the group around them understand their valuable role as participants in the discussion but not decision makers. They routinely (and, hopefully, humbly) remind those around them to their unique role as THE decision maker.
Leaders can obviously delegate decisions. In that case they should select members of the team who will be part of the discussion as well as the one person who will make the decision.
Clarity around the words discussion and decision lead to a competitive advantage in organizations because they waste so much less time in meetings and email chains.