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Share Decisions

Do you like working for a leader who makes all the decisions? Important decisions, little decisions, scheduling decisions, work distribution decisions...one after another?

I know I do not.

I like to work for and with a leader who allows me to share in the decision-making. We talk about the details. We compare the options. We align our work to our goals.

How involved is your team in your team's decisions? It can be a trap to justify a "decide-and-announce" approach when it feels like those same decisions are being handed down to you from your manager or above. But don't do it. Find the choices. Explore the options. Share them with your people and see what a difference it makes in their productivity and morale.

Of course you're in charge. The bottom line likely does stop with you. But you don't need to make every decision.

I'm going to work at sharing more decisions. How about you?

-- Doug Smith


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Comments

  1. David SpiegelMay 7, 2016 at 8:11 AM

    It's important to have the opportunity to fail as well as to succeed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Doug SmithMay 7, 2016 at 9:26 PM

      So true, David. As long as we learn from it. In fact, I like the NLP (neurolinguistic programming) interpretation: there is no failure, only feedback.

      We learn from our mistakes, which leads to better results. And allowing others on our team to make those mistakes without punishing them is essential to the advancement of the team.

      Delete

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