Professional Development

The Decisive Manager: Improving Your Effectiveness and Success in the DecisionMaking Process
By kenneth E. fracaro

Decisiveness is the ability of a manager to make quick and effective decisions to determine a chosen outcome. By following these six steps, you can increase your decision-making skills and become a more decisive manager.

Do you refer questions to the appropriate person or persons? Do you delegate responsibilities wisely and monitor progress? Do you assume responsibility for making decisions that fall under your jurisdiction? Do employees know what you expect of them?1 If you answered no to one or more of these questions, it is imperative that you become a more decisive manager by improving your decision-making capabilities. Decision-making involves using a set of procedures and strategies to evaluate alternatives and to select the best course of

action that will lead to accomplishing goals and objectives. It is a managers responsibility to make decisions and guide routine and non-routine activities through the actions of a business unit. Decisiveness is the ability to make decisions in a timely and effective manner to determine an outcome. This key skill is a major responsibility of those in management and directly affects the effectiveness and success of the decision-making process. When it comes to making timely decisions, some managers believe that quick deci-

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sions lessen the opportunity to determine a sought after outcome. However, according to the late American journalist Anne McCormick, The percentage of mistakes in a quick decision is no greater than in long drawnout vacillation, and the effect of decisiveness itself makes things go and creates confidence.2

Managers who are integrative thinkers possess attitudes that drive the creation of creative resolutions to problems. These attitudes include the following six concepts.
1 | Existing models do not represent

realitythey are our constructions;

2 | Opposing models are to be leveraged,

Since the methods a manager uses to perform his or her responsibilities directly affect the success or failure of the process, be sure to facilitate the process through proper direction, problem resolution, development, and delegation; and Dispel assumptions that can negatively affect being a decisive manager, such as when individuals: Assume that others behave or think in a certain way but do not apply those same beliefs to themselves; Maintain self-confidence by judging others and not themselves; Are personally blamed for errors committed; and Conform to a groups decision to avoid blame and keep the spotlight off themselves.

not feared;

If I had to sum up in a word what makes a good manager, Id say decisiveness. You can use the fanciest computers to gather the numbers, but in the end you have to set a timetable and act.3 ~Lee Iacocca
A decisive manager is confident and effective. In order to build your decision-making skills and become a more decisive manager, make a concerted and continuing effort to learn and put into practice the following six-step process.

3 | Existing models are not perfectthere-

fore, discover better models;

4 | You are capable of finding a better

model;
5 | You can wade into and get through the

necessary complexity involved in finding a better role model; and

6 | You are capable of giving yourself

the time necessary to create a better model.6 Attitudes determine decisiveness in a manager and are vitally important in determining the level of his or her decisiveness.

Step #2: Pre-plan Strategies

Managers must decide how to decide, meaning that a manager must invest time and forethought into creating a high-quality decision. Managers must decide who will participate in deliberations, the type of interpersonal climate required, how individuals will communicate with one another, and the type and level of control that should be used by the manager. When pre-planning strategies, managers should complete the following tasks: Create objectives and goals of a business unit to provide a framework to the process; Specify strategies or blueprints for change to implement changes created from employee input and consolidated and detailed by the manager;

It is important to realize that attitudes encourage or discourage the decisiveness of managers, which in turn will affect everyone else involved.

Step #3: Open a Dialogue

The primary tool used by decisive managers is dialogue. This important tool challenges assumptions, shares important information, and identifies disagreements. Decisive dialogue encourages incisiveness, creativity, and brings coherence to fragmented or unrelated ideas.7 The quality of dialogue can directly affect the productivity and knowledge growth of an individual. It can also affect how an individual gathers and processes information, makes decisions, and feels about his or her coworkers. In short, it can directly determine the outcome of decisions.8 Managers must cultivate constructive conflict to enhance the level of critical and divergent thinking, while simultaneously building consensus to facilitate the timely and efficient implementation of the choices

Step #1: Become an Integrative Thinker

Integrative thinking is the ability to face constructively the tension of opposing ideas and instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, to create a resolution in the form of a new idea that contains elements from each of the ideas, but which is superior to each individual idea.4 More specifically, as stated by American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, The test of first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing views in mind at the same time and retain the ability to function. One should be able to see that things are hopeless, yet be determined to make them otherwise.5

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Overcoming Bias
Inertia: act only on what you can do immediately by placing voluntary constraints on yourself. Immediate Gratification: delay a reward if waiting longer will result in a better decision. Selective Perception: be aware that your perceptions are not always real. Confirmation: set aside beliefs to keep an open mind. Framing: look at all situations and information, not only what you want to see and hear. Availability: do not draw comparisons with unrelated situations. Representation: challenge your superstitions and their validity. Self-Serving: challenge your natural inclinations to make incorrect attributions.
Source: Stephen Robbins, Decide and Conquer, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2004.

they make. Consensus is a high level of commitment and shared understanding among the people involved in the decision. In order to accomplish this:

becomes available, and establishes specific performance requirements for individuals responsible for carrying out the solution. However, when making a decision, it is important to avoid bias. For some tips to overcome bias, refer to the SIDEBAR.

Manage conflictpromote candor and

do not be afraid of opposition, stimulate the clash of ideas to reach the truth, and keep conflict constructive to promote collective problem-solving exploration; and

Build consensusmanage indecision

by drawing analogies to past experiences, consolidating the most important information to use and act upon, and imitating other successful strategies. Reach closure by being expansive, taking in all ideas and opinions, and converging on a decision after considering many diverse perspectives.9

Step #5: Implement the Decision

Present relevant facts and reasons behind a decision to those that will be affected by it. If the decision involves specific performance requirements, clearly communicate them to those responsible for accomplishing them. Next, develop an action plan with those who will implement the decision. Include a list of tasks in a logical sequence and be sure to also include target start and finish dates, the person responsible for completing each task, and space to input relevant information that will enhance the execution of a task. Issue the completed action plan to those involved in shaping and/or making the decisionand also to those who may be affected by itand provide periodic updates to the action plan as necessary. Keep people informed of changes or corrections made to the plan to ensure that everyone stays in the loop.

Step #4: Make a Decision

Determine whether the final decision will be made by you or by the entire team. Create a plan detailing the problem in writing, determine the root cause of the situation or problem, and list criteria to help you choose the best solution. Any problem has a number of solutions and alternatives. When you are thinking integratively, you are evaluating information using analysis, intuition, or a combination of both. Evaluating information using analysis involves putting facts in order and making decisions based on the importance of each fact. Intuition involves reviewing the same facts and trying to see a pattern or trend. An analytical approach is better in situations that are not time critical when a large amount of data is available with an inexperienced decisionmaker. In order to simplify the decision process, eliminate decision criteria and alternatives one by one in the order of their perceived benefits. On the other hand, evaluating information using intuition is the most useful strategy in high-speed, high-risk, and uncertain situations with experienced managers. The manager chooses a workable solution, continually refines the solution as new information

Step #6: Provide Feedback and Rewards for Superior Performance

Feedback should be candid, constructive, and focused on behavioral performance, accountability, and execution. It should reward high achievers, coach others to increase their productivity, and revitalize aberrant behaviors of those blocking progress.10 Providing feedback involves providing others with action plan updates and other important information that encourages them to be forthcoming, suggest new ideas, and be enthusiastic. Feedback can be provided in three basic forms:
1 | Confirmatorymonitoring progress

and informing an employee that he or she is on-course and moving toward accomplishing a goal.

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2 | Correctiveproviding information

showing that an employee is no longer on-course in an effort to get him or her back on track. However, keep in mind that feedback should always be positive!
3 | Motivatingproviding information to

practicing these six steps, you will increase your skills as a decisive manager, and boost your effectiveness, which will make your decisions more successful. CM

Endnotes
1. Qualities derived from Human Resources & Executive Search Consulting Services, Supervising with Style: Leadership for the FrontLines, Administration of Human Resource Programs, July 12, 2000. Quote from Anne McCormick, ThinkExist.com, accessed on March 30, 2008, at http://en. thinkexist.com/search/searchquotation. asp?search=decisiveness. Quote from Lee Iacocca, ThinkExist.com, accessed March 30, 2008, at http://en.thinkexist.com/search/searchquotation. asp?search=decisiveness. See Roger Martin, The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win through Integrative Thinking, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2007. Quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ibid. at 1. Ibid., at 115-116. See Ram Charan, Conquering a Culture of Indecision, Harvard Business Review, April 2001, Volume 79, Issue 4, 75-76. Ibid at 75. Ibid at 155-158 and 199. Ibid at 74 and 78. Derived from Christina Coffin, managing editor, Business: The Ultimate Resource, Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2002.

2.

About the Author

KENneth e. FRACARO is a freelance writer and business book reviewer from Hixson, Tennessee. He has 30 years of management experience and is a frequent contributor of management-related articles. 4. 3.

your employees about successes and difficulties to help them make more appropriate choices and decisions.11 In addition to providing feedback, a decisive manager provides rewardsin the form of monetary incentives, recognition, and/or materialthat will offer additional incentives to those implementing the decision to do so to the best of their ability.

Send comments about this article to cm@ncmahq.org.

5. 6. 7.

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Conclusion
As previously stated, decisiveness is a key management skill that determines a managers effectiveness and success in the decision-making process. By learning and

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