Just Make a Decision
July 28, 2009 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
I read somewhere that great leaders make decisions when they have 60% of the information.
Any more information, and you’ve waited too long.
Any less information, and you haven’t taken enough time to do your homework to make a good decision.
My best advice for new managers: Just do something.
Don’t get analysis paralysis, just make a decision.
Then make another one.
And another one.
It doesn’t have to be a decision about the problem you’re working on.
It just needs to be a decision.
Get used to making decisions now, and the harder ones will be easier in the future.
Example: I have 10 people on my team. I occasionally buy them lunch for a job well done, because we’re short staffed, whatever. The question comes up: Should I buy the team Chinese or pizza for lunch? I send out an e-mail to the team, and 7 people respond: 5 with Chinese and 2 for pizza, and to get the food delivered by noon, I have to place my order in 5 minutes.
What do I do?
I order Chinese, and let everyone know we’ll get pizza next time (if that’s what they want). Nobody’s hurt, and it’s good practice in decision making. Is it the right decision?
Does it really matter?
Free food is free food, and getting food when folks are HUNGRY is more important than getting folks the right food. Sure, if I had any dietary restrictions on my team I might behave differently, but they don’t, so I just make a decision.
When I started managing, I worried a lot about making everyone happy, so I’d wait on a decision. I’d wait for everyone to weigh in before making a decision.
And it crippled my team and me. We’d wait until we had more information, and people would be upset because we didn’t share what we thought the problem was. My manager would be annoyed because I didn’t share what we found, and we couldn’t move into action to fix things sooner.
Making the little decisions about silly things like lunch have helped me gain the confidence to make the bigger decisions about hirings and firings, about what to do about emergencies, about a lot of things.
Now, I wait for 60% of the information and then I make a decision.
That’s my encouragement to you!
Just make a decision.
Thank Phil, for this very important piece of advice. I have recently become a manager and I think this is exactly what I need to do. An eye-opener.
Making NO decision IS a decision! There is also the fear of not having enough data. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut and make a decision!
Bravo! I wish the GM where I work would read and heed this great advice. He’s the type of guy who can never get enough data, and takes forever to make a decision. Everyone hear jokes about it (it’s either that or cry). This GM is so cautious about how his decisions will be received (whether it’s a couple of employees (out of 350) who complain about everything, or a Board member who micromanages), that he delays making any decisions for as long as possible. :-(
Hi Phil:
Great post…especially the advice about waiting too long to make a decision. If you wait too long to make the decision, it will be made for you, and you may not like the outcome. You might be interested in reading a post I authored on the same topic…http://bit.ly/LSNAi
Hi Phil, Good stuff!
Lots of little decisions to build confidence in making larger ones is always the best approach, whether raising kids or building managers. It’s the same process.
That’s indeed good practice. I have a quite high role in my school’s student council, and I often have to make decisions. I found out that doing what feels right when 50-60% information is available is better than trying to make everyone happy.
This way the results will come sooner, 50-60% of the people will be happy, and most of them will be satisfied at some level, but only a very small percentage will be unhappy.
Also, if your people see that you can make decisions they will respect you more as their leader. You’re the leader because you lead, you make the choice. Trying to respond to needs by your choices only makes you a good leader. Trying to respond to all needs is 1), impossible 2), makes you the subservient, not the leader.
Good stuff, keep it up ;)