Fixing Why Leaders Don’t Let Go of Decisions
Decisions should be made
by those closest to the action.
The trouble is those closest to the action may not see the big picture. They may act selfishly. Perhaps they’re great at their jobs but they’re fearful. Should I continue?
You have a bag full of reasons why others shouldn’t have decision making authority. Most are self-made; many are self-serving.
Leaders can’t let go of decisions because they:
- Believe distributed decision making creates mediocrity.
- Think they know better.
- Don’t share information.
- Have more experience.
- Have an agenda they haven’t shared.
- Don’t trust others.
Personally, I don’t let go of decisions because I believe:
- I’m more passionate.
- I better see where we need to go.
- I like control.
Five Ways I know you’re ready to make decisions:
- You fully embrace organizational values. The more closely aligned we are the more trusting I am of you.
- You have a proven track record of unselfishness. I can’t let you make decisions if you have your own best interests in mind.
- You have a proven track record of follow-through. The more you’ve succeed in the past the more I trust you in the present.
- You understand and believe in organizational vision. Decisions that impact future direction most touch vision.
- You understand and believe in organizational mission. Decisions that improve present conditions most touch mission.
What prevents leaders from sharing decision making authority?
How do you know when others are ready to make decisions?
How can you prepare people to become decision makers?
can’t let go… because of perceived or real organizational expectations that it’s supposed to work that way.
Yes indeed, organizational culture is huge when it comes to decision making patterns.
I recently heard someone say “There has to be just one person in charge, and that has to be me.”
🙂 Sounds like a formula for full engagement of ONE person.
Leaders who don’t let go of decisions are in a fog. They haven’t realized yet that the command and control model of leadership is dead. It just hasn’t been buried yet. Nor do they get how to release the creativity of their team. At a fundamental level they misunderstand their role. They are blameless,however. The culture, not only in their organization, but the wider culture in the western world, supports their misguided thinking. Leaders would do well to rid themselves of what may be the three most limiting words in history: “I already know.” See my upcoming blog post on http://www.yourleadersedge.com/blog. For an as of yet uncommon leadership model, check out my book at http://www.theungamebook.com.
Love the challenge to let go of “I already know.” Powerful! Thanks
I love it when someone loves a challenge. 🙂 My new blog post on “I already know” will be available today. http://www.yourleadersedge.com/blog
Dear Dan,
You have touched upon the very essence of the issue that exists between action and decision- Fear. Decision maker has less fear than the person who acts. Generally decision makers and actors are located at different place in the system. So, context is different.In such cases, decision makers may not be aware about the actual scenario that might emerge while taking action. And the major factor that create this fear of execution is ” Accountability”. Decision maker is less or perhaps not accountable than the person who execute action. so, generally in case of success result, credit goes to decision makers and in case of failure executor is accountable with various reasons.
I think what is missing here is a sense of togetherness and belonging. When decision makers are more concerned about their safety, others will definitely become more conscious and hence avoid taking responsibility. It means decision makers need to take accountability in case of failure and give credit to executors in case of success.
In the system, there is need to change the rule of the game. Action takers should be rewarded for timely actions. Decision making is good exercise but no execution is waste of time and resources. It means leaders or senior managers should create environment and delegating responsibility and taking accountability. They should create a feeling of confidence and should make sure that ” To err is human” rather than criticizing, victimizing or punishing someone for unintentional mistakes.
As always Ajay, thanks for sharing your insights.
I love your suggestion that togetherness and belonging are missing when there is a disconnect between decision makers and those who execute. Bingo!
Leaders should be asking:
How am I making people feel they belong? How am I showing people where they fit in? ….
In terms of group development, people can’t get any place else (to how will I influence and contribute) without first having their “I belong here” need met. That simply means “I’m in the right place with the right people.” It does not yet mean the deeper kind of belonging which comes after the other questions like influence and contribution have been answered. Awake and aware leaders know this intuitively.
Would love to see the scale used to determine who is more passionate than another.
“They think they know better”…watch out that verb tense will come back and bite you tomorrow. You may have known better once, does not mean you know better now.
I am fine with my leader making all the decisions as long as s/he is going to be here forever. If you can’t guarantee that, share the process and responsibility then. If you do know better now, share how you got to that point so that others can continue the journey when you are no longer here.
Doc, I love your not so subtle subtlety! Your last paragraph is classic Doc… You sure know how to kick someone in the pants in the nicest way.
In a word, “Ownership.”
The reality is that MY ideas are always better than YOUR ideas. With peers, that simply creates some interaction.
With a BOSS, the dynamics can be different.
Dan has written a good bit on the dynamics of leadership over the years. Good stuff. For me, I am constantly reminded that BOSS spelled backwards is often an organizational reality.
(grin)
My ideas are mine because they are right 🙂 … I seldom hold to an idea that I know is wrong… Thanks for that reminder and explanation of why it’s hard to suspend judgement and keep an open mind…. 🙂
A scary subset of the above is leaders who allow others to make decisions, but when things go wrong, do “post mortems” in excruciating detail, ostensibly to learn, but with the underlying desire to find fault and criticize so as to reaffirm that they (the leader) are blameless in what went wrong, and the decision-making process by their underlings was faulty. This is often provoked by fear on their part of censure by their own superiors. If they “do something” (meaning tell their superiors that they discovered and fixed a problem with their less competent underlings), they deflect pressure from on high – and skate on to live another day.
I was once caught in the middle between a boss in a Fortune 500 company who wanted me to fire a person with 24 years of seniority for a single decision that turned out (in retrospect) to be bad. He warned me that he had promoted me and thought I had a future as a senior manager, so I “owed him the favor” because “doing nothing would make both me and him look bad”. I resisted the undeserved firing, got no bonus, was ostracized by my boss and his peers. When a recruiter called about 3 months later, I listened – and left the politically poisoned atmosphere.
This is not leadership, but self-preservation and promotion a la Machiavelli. It is effective to maintain power, but not to get engagement.
“You have a proven track record of follow-through.”
> I think you have touched a very important part of leadership which most take for granted. Some end it after giving instructions but really, follow through is as important and yes, decision makers must have this proven skill. I’m working on it.