Decision-Making Blog

The Assumption of Competence

Research shows that the people who consider themselves the most competent are actually the least competent. (Score one for the importance of staying humble!)

Managing Tough Decisions

Managers and leaders often have to make tough “right vs. right” decisions where there are strong arguments on both sides. Ultimately the toughest decisions create winners and losers. In the toughest kinds of decisions, you stand to lose yourself.

Operating Principles to Manage Conflict

To build high levels of trust, you need to establish clear operating principles. Operating principles help clarify the day-to-day interactions you want people to demonstrate, and enable teams to anticipate and minimize conflict.

Decisions: The Heart and Soul of the Organization

Decisions are the atoms of every organization. Every new product launched, every new service offered, every process made more efficient and reliable is a result of hundreds of decisions. Effective leaders view their worlds through…

Clarifying Expectations: The Stages of Organizational Culture

Leaders and managers who want to build high levels of trust as they delegate need to clearly define their expectations. If you have a specific outcome in mind, communicate it. Don’t expect people to develop telepathic powers!

Rethinking Consensus

For a long time, I have argued that leaders need to be careful of relying too much on consensus decision-making.

Using Values to Decentralize Decision-Making

One of the greatest benefits of developing a framework of core values is that decision making can be decentralized.

What’s Your Preferred Decision-Making Style?

Everyone has a preferred decision-making style. Knowing your style can give you more insight into why you make the decisions you do and help you to improve your decisions.

Clarifying People’s Assumptions

Psychologists know that people’s beliefs affect how they interpret data. So the Circle of Assumptions teaches us that people can get caught in self-justifying feedback loops, where they become blind to data which does not reinforce their beliefs. A critical element of productive conversation is the ability to assess what people really know, and what …

How to Delegate Effectively

Delegating effectively is one of the most important things a manager does. The best managers in the world excel at knowing when to delegate, how to delegate, and to whom to delegate. A key to their success – perhaps the most important key – is that they’ve learned how to hire effective people and then …

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