A Leaders' Resolution: Stop Making Decisions
The job of a leader is to make decisions, right? In fact, many people work their whole career to get to the top of the organization just for the opportunity to make decisions for the organization.
Yet I would suggest the best leaders make very few decisions. They set direction. They paint a vision for the future. They look ahead for opportunities or threats. But great leaders make very few operational decisions.
Healthy leaders are those who empower their team members, allowing them to make important decisions and welcome the resulting outcomes, even if it is a different decision than they personally would have made. They train their staff to make decisions by staying out of those decisions.
Poor leaders often attempt to maintain a tight grip on all decisions, reinforcing a self-centered leadership style. This not only creates a bottleneck but also paralyzes the team, as they are trained to wait for the leader to weigh in before any action is taken.
Resolution #1: Only Make Decisions that Only You Can Make
Your leadership team should follow one guiding principle: they should only make decisions that only they can make. This fosters a healthy balance, where influential calls are handled at the top, while empowering the rest of the organization to make operational decisions.
Does this mean leaders should totally disengage from all decision-making processes? Not at all. It simply refers to setting strategic course and allowing your team to handle the operational aspect.
Isn't there a risk in this too? Indeed, like every decision, this too involves risk. However, it’s a calculated one, showing trust in your team's ability to take the helm when necessary.
Fine-tuning this delicate balance is the sign of an admirable leader.
The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Resolution #2: Push Decisions As Far Down in the Organization as Possible.
Isn't this essentially the same resolution as the first? Yep. But this is so important, I want you to get it.
I love the example of the renowned $2,000 Rule from Ritz-Carlton. They have a policy where they empower every employee in the company to make a decision up to $2,000 to solve a problem without getting permission, and with no judgment for a poor decision. It's a stellar demonstration of pushing decisions far down into the organization, placing trust in team members to make judgment calls that enhance customer satisfaction.
If you run a church or a non-profit, you likely can't have such a robust policy, but there are some questions we can grapple with as we consider what this might look like at our organization:
Are your front-line staff and volunteers empowered to make decisions to solve problems?
Do you find you are often unable to move forward because the leaders is out-of-town, or it's 2 or 3 weeks before the leadership team meets again?
Is there frustration in the organization because the leadership team makes all the decisions and seems out of touch with what is actually happening "on the ground"?
If you want to get serious about this in 2024 -- put this phrase on every agenda: