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 well does your organization clearly communicate who gets to make a decision?
- Very well — people always know who the decision makers are: 16.92%
- Well — we generally define who decision makers are most of the time: 31.87%
- Not well — we often lack clarity on who gets to make a decision: 39.12%
- Poorly — no one ever knows who the decision makers are: 12.09%
Who’s making the call? More than 50% of the time, we’re not sure who’s making the decision (and I’d venture to guess just as frequently we’re not clear on what the decision is in the first place). This lack of clarity slows things down, leads to execution risk and causes great amounts of frustration. Decisions get undone because people aren’t clear when a decision is final or who gets to declare that it’s been made. Do your organization and yourself a favor — at the outset of any major decision making process, clearly define and communicate who is making the decision and what decision is being made. You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble on the back end.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”
