Leaders have to make tough calls. Its unavoidable. Sometimes the decisions that need to be made are not very popular decisions; to an individual. But I bet the team appreciates it. This is not a lesson in HOW to make a decision. It’s a poke to encourage THE decision. And the avoidance could be just as bad as a wrong decision.
Some years ago, a friend of mine had a really nice assignment. Busy, but not too busy. The boss called him up and asked him to come to his office. Well this cant be good. The Boss “asked” my friend to take a new assignment. The “new” assignment was a beast. It was busy, extremely! Maybe twice the workload what my buddy was used to. It had a reputation for being a dumping ground. Well the boss knew for the firm’s sake, this assignment needed the best available person and the team needed to be fixed.
The boss indicates to my friend that he would like him to consider taking on the new role. My buddy, replies, “That’s a big assignment boss, a lot of responsibility. I would like to go home and discuss it with my family”. The boss responds, “You know what, you are right, you should take the weekend and do that. And, when you come in on Monday, I will see you in your new office”.
It really wasn’t a choice for my friend you see. The boss was making a call. A decision that was, when all things considered, what was best for the customer, the company, the team and then the employee. Now, he wasn’t setting him up for failure, quite the contrary. The boss knew my friend was the best person for the job and that he was quite competent. If fact, he would go on to do great things and reach the highest level in his domain.
When you know something needs to be done and decisions need to be made, make them. And when you do that, also demonstrate the gratitude for all their past work that has put you in a position now to ask them to step up. Support them moving forward. Give them all the tools to make them successful for the job you need doing! You put them in the spot, you owe them the support they need to be successful.
Back in my early days on patrol, every cop looked at every front-line supervisor (Sgts) and one of the first things they evaluated was: “Can he/she make a decision?”. And when they couldn’t, we chalked it up to Orchiectomy. A bilateral orchiectomy was completed when they made Lieutenant. The surgery was elective! That’s the difference. I am not sure I remember what we thought if a female supervisor couldn’t “pull the trigger”. I digress, you get the point.
“Unless a decision has degenerated into work, it is not a decision; at best it is a good intention. ~Peter Drucker. I will add: “At worst its destructive”.
