Using Your People to Help Make Decisions
Get your people involved
Good management practice is to get your people involved. Use them to help make decisions. This makes a lot of sense. It is impossible to know everything about all things. Use their expertise, get their input.
Don’t be a politician
The problem today is there is also the tendency for managers to be to be very political. Managers ask for input when they have already made decisions to give illusion that they are interested in what their employees have to say. People are not stupid, they will figure out you are only talking to them as window dressing. What this leads to is people not really investing when you really want their input and simply dissatisfied employees.
Leadership is knowing when to ask
Leadership is understanding when to ask employees their input and when to just make the decision. When you have a new group, that does not have the experience needed to give the needed input, then by all means make the call. If time dictates a decision must be made now, then by all means make the decision.
Tell employees about decision
The key when making decisions, without input, is to then quickly get back to your employees and let them know what is going on. The worst thing that can happen is your employees get information, about the decision, second hand. The information may be incomplete or false, leading to bad decisions by employees. When there is no information people will fill the vacuum with their own information. Made up information almost always creates an even bigger problem. If you find you are always making the decision, then you need to reevaluate how you make decisions, because it means your planning process is flawed.
Don’t abdicate the decision
Once you have asked your team their input, remember you are still the boss and it is your decision. Do not abdicate just because your people do not agree with your position. Just make sure to let people know you heard what they had to say, repeat what they are telling you. Then tell them you appreciate their input, but this time you do not agree. However, if you are always overruling your team, my guess is you are not really listening and you are really a politician.