Written by Jerry Olson, The Resultants
Do you have a vision of growing your business into more than it is today but feel like you keep getting stuck? Accomplishing your goal of a bigger and better future will require changes to how your business is run. Hand-in-hand with those changes come all the decisions to be made. Unfortunately, as businesses grow and become more complex, especially with the addition of more people, the decision-making process often slows down. Sometimes, it even comes to a screeching halt.
Often a delayed decision is a bad decision and can cause your business to bump up against a ceiling, stopping progress toward your goal. However, the speed of your decision-making process can be improved rather painlessly by implementing a few of the following suggestions.
Here are eight ways to increase the pace of decision-making in your organization that can help you break the ceiling and start moving further and faster toward your goals.
- GOOD ENOUGH: Seeking perfection can stop progress. Making a decision and moving forward today can be much better than waiting too long and potentially missing opportunities. Don’t let a desire for perfection slow down your business. Believing there is one right answer and all other answers are wrong can prevent you from making a decision and thus, moving forward more quickly.
- PRIORITIZE: Prioritize issues for timely significant decisions. Will what you decide have consequences two years from now? How difficult will it be to change course if the decision brings unexpected negative consequences? Take on the highest priorities and move forward. Sometimes this means making small decisions that move big issues forward one more step.
- DELEGATE: Can the decision be delegated to someone else? Business leaders who insist on making all the decisions slow their businesses down and substantially limit their ability to grow. Delegating decisions will also provide development and growth opportunities for your team members, resulting in improved organizational culture.
- NEXT STEP: Can the decision be separated into smaller decisions? What step or steps forward can be taken today? Simply breaking big decisions down into smaller bites can dramatically speed up the process.
- DEADLINE: The simple act of setting a date for having a decision in place seems obvious but isn’t always done. If you are forced to make a decision in order to meet your deadline, chances are it won’t be pushed further and further down the road.
- PROCESS: With a deadline set, determine what process you’ll use to make the final decision. Determine what additional information is needed and who will gather it as well as whose advice and input should be included. Be clear about the steps and expectations, and assign actions with concrete deadlines for completion.
- PERSONALITY STYLES: People with different personality styles make decisions differently. Without knowing and acknowledging these differences, the process can become dysfunctional. Those who require more information and input should not be allowed to slow the entire process down. Many teams find great value in team building exercises such as assessing individual styles and personalities. Knowing how your team members process decisions can help smooth the decision-making process.
- EMOTIONS: Decisions, especially big ones, evoke emotions which can then slow decision-making. Sometimes the simple act of acknowledging the emotions can help people embrace the change and speed up the process of deciding and implementing it.
Author Jerry Olson is a business advisor with The Resultants, a Twin Cities business advisory firm. As a business advisor, Jerry advocates for the best interest of your business so it can move further and faster to thrive and sustain over time. He helps leaders gather great people and inspire them to achieve top performance, resulting in accelerated bottom-line results. Jerry also helps leaders align people strategies with organizational strategies and more effectively lead, manage and hold people accountable. In addition, Jerry and The Resultants have provided instruction and curriculum for BATC-Housing First Minnesota’s Leadership Institute for the past four years. To learn more about Jerry and The Resultants, visit www.theResultants.com.
