GOOD LEADERS MAKE DECISIONS

Good leaders make decisions. There’s no question about that. And better leaders know what inputs they need in order to make the right decision. Too often, leaders will make decisions on the information they’re given, absent of the definition of the information they need. Now, not having what you need isn’t an excuse not to make a decision. But if you haven’t defined what you need to make a decision, you’ve missed an opportunity to ensure that you get as much of what you need as possible.

THE INGREDIENTS MAKE THE CAKE

You assemble the right team members to participate in a decision and it may not be the same team members every time. Understand and know what your resources are at your disposal. And if you don’t find you have the necessary resources at your disposal,
don’t be afraid to go look outside. But find the right resources to make the right decision.

Getting to the place where you have what you need to make a decision is not a transaction exercise. You, as an organization have to create an environment where you have enough exposure to the various levels within your organization, so that when a problem exists, you readily have an understanding of the capabilities, whether it’s at the staff level, the supervisory level, the management level, the executive level, the board level or the consultant level.

If you want to be a leader constantly aware of the resources in your ecosystem, then you put yourself at a disadvantage when you need to make a decision.

ACT: A BAD DECISION CAN BE BETTER THAN NO DECISION

It’s almost always better to make a bad decision than to make no decision at all. Good leaders and a lot of the textbooks and rightly will tell you, fail fast. So if you’re not 100 % sure about the integrity or the quality of the decision you’re making, put checkpoints in very early on and move far enough along that there’s something to measure.

So yeah, I’d rather you make a decision and then put checks and balances in early in the process so that if it’s the wrong decision, you can quickly assess it, course correct, and make another decision.

MEASURE – KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE

Knowing the inputs you need in order to make a decision. Well, once you determine what those inputs are, working oftentimes with your financial people, particularly if there’s an economic output associated with what it is you’re about to make a decision on, you then need to put in place the measurement capability. So you need to put in place, how are we going to measure this? Because it’s one thing to make a decision. It’s one thing to expect an outcome. But if you don’t have the ability to measure the progress and or achievement of that outcome, then how will you ever know that it was the right or wrong decision? Your finance team is really important in helping you to do that.

No matter what the metrics are that are non-financial, their ultimate objective is a financial outcome. And that’s why you’ve got to have the finance people understand the measurements of the various other disciplines and bring that to its logical financial conclusion so that the senior management team, the board, the stakeholders can get an indication quickly as to whether or not that was the right decision. And if they need to remediate, what are they trying to achieve now? Finance helps you with that.

COMMUNICATE: GET TO THE RIGHT CONVERSATION

It’s critical that you understand how to determine if you achieved your objective and finance is major in helping you to do that. You’ve got to communicate often enough that people and the leaders have information at their fingertips to make the right decisions, but it’s also got to be in a format that’s easy to read and quick to make decisions.

So, I say communicate because communicating isn’t just about giving people information, it’s about giving people information in a usable and efficient format.

FINANCE AND OPERATIONS – SYNCHRONIZE

Quite often GreySuits is called on to bridge the operating team with the financial measurement and the financial report. And that’s exactly where we play a very pivotal role in a lot of organizations. We will marry financial information with operating metrics and present a report that allows decision makers to see a more nuanced set of results that allows them to consider: “Did that operating decision result in the financial outcome that we were trying to get to?” And GreySuits is a big part of that.

FINAL THOUGHT: FAIL FAST

My main message to companies and clients and even my team members is,
don’t be afraid to make a decision. Don’t be afraid to be wrong. And often the best learning comes out of a failure. So fail fast.

GOOD LEADERS MAKE DECISIONS

Good leaders make decisions. There’s no question about that. And better leaders know what inputs they need in order to make the right decision. Too often, leaders will make decisions on the information they’re given, absent of the definition of the information they need. Now, not having what you need isn’t an excuse not to make a decision. But if you haven’t defined what you need to make a decision, you’ve missed an opportunity to ensure that you get as much of what you need as possible.

THE INGREDIENTS MAKE THE CAKE

You assemble the right team members to participate in a decision and it may not be the same team members every time. Understand and know what your resources are at your disposal. And if you don’t find you have the necessary resources at your disposal,
don’t be afraid to go look outside. But find the right resources to make the right decision.

Getting to the place where you have what you need to make a decision is not a transaction exercise. You, as an organization have to create an environment where you have enough exposure to the various levels within your organization, so that when a problem exists, you readily have an understanding of the capabilities, whether it’s at the staff level, the supervisory level, the management level, the executive level, the board level or the consultant level.

If you want to be a leader constantly aware of the resources in your ecosystem, then you put yourself at a disadvantage when you need to make a decision.

ACT: A BAD DECISION CAN BE BETTER THAN NO DECISION

It’s almost always better to make a bad decision than to make no decision at all. Good leaders and a lot of the textbooks and rightly will tell you, fail fast. So if you’re not 100 % sure about the integrity or the quality of the decision you’re making, put checkpoints in very early on and move far enough along that there’s something to measure.

So yeah, I’d rather you make a decision and then put checks and balances in early in the process so that if it’s the wrong decision, you can quickly assess it, course correct, and make another decision.

MEASURE – KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE

Knowing the inputs you need in order to make a decision. Well, once you determine what those inputs are, working oftentimes with your financial people, particularly if there’s an economic output associated with what it is you’re about to make a decision on, you then need to put in place the measurement capability. So you need to put in place, how are we going to measure this? Because it’s one thing to make a decision. It’s one thing to expect an outcome. But if you don’t have the ability to measure the progress and or achievement of that outcome, then how will you ever know that it was the right or wrong decision? Your finance team is really important in helping you to do that.

No matter what the metrics are that are non-financial, their ultimate objective is a financial outcome. And that’s why you’ve got to have the finance people understand the measurements of the various other disciplines and bring that to its logical financial conclusion so that the senior management team, the board, the stakeholders can get an indication quickly as to whether or not that was the right decision. And if they need to remediate, what are they trying to achieve now? Finance helps you with that.

COMMUNICATE: GET TO THE RIGHT CONVERSATION

It’s critical that you understand how to determine if you achieved your objective and finance is major in helping you to do that. You’ve got to communicate often enough that people and the leaders have information at their fingertips to make the right decisions, but it’s also got to be in a format that’s easy to read and quick to make decisions.

So, I say communicate because communicating isn’t just about giving people information, it’s about giving people information in a usable and efficient format.

FINANCE AND OPERATIONS – SYNCHRONIZE

Quite often GreySuits is called on to bridge the operating team with the financial measurement and the financial report. And that’s exactly where we play a very pivotal role in a lot of organizations. We will marry financial information with operating metrics and present a report that allows decision makers to see a more nuanced set of results that allows them to consider: “Did that operating decision result in the financial outcome that we were trying to get to?” And GreySuits is a big part of that.

FINAL THOUGHT: FAIL FAST

My main message to companies and clients and even my team members is,
don’t be afraid to make a decision. Don’t be afraid to be wrong. And often the best learning comes out of a failure. So fail fast.