SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: How effective are you at driving decisions in your organization?
- Very effective — I can get everyone to agree quickly: 15.48%
- Effective — I can get people to agree but it doesn’t always work: 67.8%
- Somewhat effective — I struggle with moving people toward making decisions: 14.24%
- Very ineffective — I have great difficulty in moving people to decide: 2.48%
No decision is still a decision. Getting people to agree with your decision can be challenging. All too often we won’t make a decision until everyone agrees. That consensus-based approach can cost you and often it’s a sub-optimal way to make decisions. Unfortunately, not everyone gets a say in every decision. You need to accept that you will make decisions that people will disagree with. Your ability to move decisions forward and to get more senior-level decision makers to take action is a critical determinant of your decision-making effectiveness. In the immortal words of RUSH, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”