Leadership: The Ten Key Decision-Making Skills for Leaders
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In my experience as an executive coach, many leaders are unaware of the decision-making skills they need to succeed in their leadership role. This article explains what they are and how to learn them.
Individual versus Group Decision-Making Skills
To be clear, when I say “leadership decision-making skills,” I’m not talking about your personal ability to be decisive or decide matters on your own. I’m talking instead about your ability to guide a group to a decision that you will all support and carry out wholeheartedly. In other words, I am talking about group decision-making skills.
Shared Decision-Making Skills
But I am not saying the official leader should be the only one with some mastery of group decision-making skills. I believe all members of the working group or team should at least be familiar with them.
But in my experience as an executive coach, few leaders or team members realise that group decision-making demands shared skills. Thus, they don’t consider the need to learn how to take decisions together, but the need is there nonetheless.
Ten Key Group Decision-Making Skills
So what are the key group decision-making skills? I believe there are ten:
- Ensuring that the group hears the views of less vocal members.
- Sensing information gaps and making sure the group gathers the necessary data in the time available.
- Exposing and testing unspoken assumptions.
- Drawing out different opinions and unspoken disagreement and, where necessary, allowing conflict to get the truth out to (a) remove the corrosive effect of hidden, opposing motives and (b) reduce the chance of poor buy-in and implementation.
- Building on or combining others’ ideas.
- Ensuring during contentious issues that everyone listens hard to what each other is saying and, where necessary, that arguing colleagues can explain the other person’s point to their satisfaction.
- Uncovering group members’ underlying needs when polarised positions threaten a stalemate.
- Mediating between members whose disagreement oversteps the line and becomes personal.
- Reaching a strong enough accord to enable action follow-through.
- Assessing quickly which of the many decision-making options and techniques to use in the circumstances.
Looking Closer at the Tenth Skill
I am not suggesting that in leadership every decision you face must be taken by the group as a whole. Some decisions don’t lend themselves to that, which is why the tenth skill is on the list. This skill involves knowing your seven decision-making options and judging which to use in the circumstances.
This is where Tannenbaum & Schmidt’s Leadership Behaviour Continuum model helps. It explains the seven approaches to decision-making, ranging from “most leader-centred” to “least leader-centred”. The seven are:
- Leader makes decision and announces it (most leader-centred).
- Leader decides and “sells” benefits of decision.
- Leader decides, but presents his thinking, inviting exploration.
- Leader presents his tentative decision, which he is prepared to change.
- Leader presents problem, gets suggestions, makes the decision.
- Leader defines the problem, asks group to make the decision.
- Leader allows group to define the problem and make the decision (least leader-centred).
How to Learn the Ten Group Decision-Making Skills
What’s the best way to learn the ten group decision-making skills?
As a leader, you can educate yourself by reading and seeking training, for example, in handling conflict or chairing meetings. But the real key is to practise group decision-making skills “live” in a group setting – preferably with a coach at the beginning – as you and your colleagues are wrestling with real issues.
However, even after coaching, you’re unlikely to be great at all ten skills. This is why wise leaders draw on their colleagues’ strengths because they will probably be better than you at some of the ten skills. Thus, to reinforce a point I made earlier, it makes sense for leaders to make sure the group learns these skills together.
