Big Decisions and the Last Responsible Moment

As your leadership span-of-control grows so does the impact of your decisions. For that reason it’s important to develop a good decision making process for you and your team.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share
Leadership Tools: Make big decision at the last responsible moment.

If the decision is obvious with plenty of history showing it’s the right decision for you then you should do one of three things in the following order:  

  1. Identify if there are others on your team that could easily make this decision.  If yes then have them make it to develop the team. 
  2. Identify if there are others on your team that will struggle with this decision could with help.  If yes then coach them through the process and have them make the decision to develop the team.  
  3. If 1 & 2 don’t apply then make it and move on.

For other more complicated and highly leveraged decisions with no clear right or wrong:

  1. Set a decision timeline and communicate it to those involved so they don’t think it is procrastination for the sake of procrastination.  Know the last possible moment you can make the decision where the advantage of waiting reaches a point of diminishing returns. 
  2. Identify sources of additional information including advisory services to help provide you more situational awareness
  3. Don’t over-analyze which will lead to more confidence than competency in your decision.  
  4. When you do decide be decisive and execute with discipline.
  5. Don’t start “Resulting” regardless of the outcome.



Customer Strategy Intersection
Having an effective market strategy is the #1 thing a contractor can do to ensure sustainable and profitable growth. For your strategy brainstorm the following and look for intersections:
Feeling Safe and Being Safe
These are not the same. Both must be managed. Know which of your actions contribute to each and to what degree. Know that your actions may be interpreted dramatically differently by different people.
Integrating Metrics and Organizational Structure
Having a high-level scoreboard for a contractor is just the beginning. The much more valuable part is breaking these high-level scores down into specific and prioritized metrics at each level within each functional area of the organization.