How Mentoring Focused Me on Fact-Based Decision Making
November 19th, 2009 by Lois MelbourneSecond in a series
While mentoring another entrepreneur a while back, he asked questions that really made me focus on why things had worked for Aquire as we grew the business, and what the big challenges had been in decision making. Forced to concentrate on the why and how of big, tough, and pivotal decisions, I analyzed some of the best and worst stuff I/we have ever done.
Good decision making requires that you recognize your strengths and weaknesses in this area. I know that I make hundreds of decisions every day, most of us do. Many of those decisions are BIG decisions. I know that I must trust employees and managers to bring me facts along with their instincts when presenting an issue with choices. Fact-based decision making is important. If I use my Kolbe rating, I know that the 2nd strongest element of my behavior is fact related. I need facts or need to know that my workforce has the facts to support any decisions made. I need to know my workforce did their homework and analyzed all possibilities.
My first, instinctual behavior, according to Kolbe, is that I am a “Quick Start” or “intuitive.” I am an idea-a-minute person. I explained to my mentee that it’s important to balance your team with people who think differently than you do. We can all have the same objectives, but our team is largely built of strong fact finders and “executors,” people who focus on the application of the ideas. This almost always leads to great results. A mixture of employee capabilities and competencies yields a well rounded, successful team. My team mates can create and illustrate vision. They can also execute towards that vision.
During the next few weeks I more closely scrutinized new decisions that I might otherwise have made quickly and intuitively. The result was that I made decisions with more purpose. By going through the mentoring discussion, it focused my thinking on even more purposeful decision making as well as decision making discussions. It reminded me that my intuition is great and that the facts that back up the knowledge are powerful.
I’m using a lot of me and we in today’s post. So, it may appear overly introspective. My intent is to encourage you, as I did my mentee. Look at your team. Figure out how each of you makes decisions, and balance the various methods for the best decision making outcomes. If you don’t all understand how you make decisions, I encourage you to invest in analysis tools like Kolbe, Myers-Briggs, or Assess Systems. They are great launching points for discussion in figuring out the psyche of your team.
Cheers,
Lois
You may also like...
Related Blog Post
How Mentoring Focused Me on Fact-Based Decision MakingRelated Blog Post
Managing Talent Through Empowered Decision Making
Lois:
You are such an inspiration, not just because of your organization’s stellar tools, but for your commitment to excellence. Your charitable heart shines through with all that you do. I admire and respect you.
Sincerely,
Margo Rose @HRMargo twitter, http://HRMargo.com
Not enough entrepreneurs think about how they are making decisions because they are so focused on what decisions they are making. They certainly don’t think about how their team is making decisions.
It is a combination of mindset / criteria and process. People take the process of decisions making and even who to include and who not to for granted, because we’ve been doing it all our lives. And we’re taught that unless we’re told otherwise, the default model is that our superior (parent, teacher, etc.) makes the decision.
This is why we teach use of RACI for decision making and action. R = responsible, A = accountable, C = consult, I = inform. I actually think some of the most helpful piece is clarifying the difference between consult and inform. If someone thinks that you are expected to consult with them, but you only think you’ll inform them of the decision, much trouble can be caused. Especially in the fast paced world of a startup.
Whether a large project or ongoing decision making, getting high agreement of both the what and how of decision making helps a great deal.
Jamie Flinchbaugh
http://www.jamieflinchbaugh.com
Jamie,
Thank you for the feedback. I checked out your site. Great stuff for entrepreneurs and other leaders. Thinking instead of shooting from the hip must learned by some people. But they will find it worth their while when they do. I will continue to read http://jamieflinchbaugh.com/