Managerial style Vs. Team's decision-making capability

 

  

One of the concerns most business heads/managers have is how to bring the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities among the team?

This genuine concern comes from the reality that they spend more time giving instructions/ decisions on many routine tasks as people approach them and also from the feeling that they could not devote time to significant problems or value addition where they can only do it.

The concern needs to approach from two aspects. One is on more profound education or awareness of the importance of problem-solving competency, methodologies, tools, and techniques. Learning to some extent helps the team to improve their problem-solving & decision-making abilities.

However, as a second aspect, to a large extent, it is the business head/manager’s managerial style that determines the organizational environment for the team to take the lead on problem-solving and decision-making in any situation.

Hence the first aspect can be more straightforward than the second aspect of relooking the manager’s style of getting things done.
 
For example, consider the type of managers/leaders we might have come across in the organization.
 
Category 1:

The type of managers/leaders who do not want to hear any problem or bad news and used to say to the team, “Don’t bring me the problem only, come with solutions.”Sometimes they spend time with the team to resolve the problem. They display both distant and friendly behavior towards problem-solving. Uncertainty in predicting the behavior.

In this environment, the team is likely reluctant to take the lead in solving the problem independently and clueless about the expectation of problem-solving and decision-making.
 
Category 2:

The type of managers/ leaders who enjoy solving the problem themselves. Their pride is in solving an issue of any kind and operating with the belief that their core responsibility is to solve the problem irrespective of assigning ownership. 

Likely, in this environment, the managers will resolve all the issues, and the team will be open enough to escalate the problem. They think problem-solving is all about escalation to the boss, and the scope for enhancing problem-solving and decision-making competency will be limited.
 
Category 3:

These managers/leaders believe in the larger goal, define the escalation process and ownership, good at delegating and empowering the team to make decisions. They pitch only when there is an escalation to their level and is also disciplined enough to make the people accountable for the task through clarity and periodic reviews.
Likely, in this environment, people are reasonably good at problem-solving and decision-making and enjoy learning more from the boss.
 
In all the categories, the managers/leaders have a good intention of getting things done, and no one will resemble the same type all the time; it will be a combination of all styles depending on the situation.  However, what category or style one demonstrates most of the time determines the team’s problem-solving and decision-making capability.
 
If the managers/ leaders are aware of their style, delegation, communication process, and change in style lead to change in the organizational environment for enhancing decision-making capabilities among the team.

We can talk about some of the strategies for each type of category next week.

Until then, you relate to your managerial style in most of the time and how good your team’s capability in problem-solving and decision-making.
 
Have a great week ahead.

a simple guide for the right decision making

 a simple guide for the right decision making 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)
 

In line with our topic on "problem-solving and decision making," recently, in one of the management reviews, one manager asked the following question, which i thought was relevant for the topic.

The question was, " how to balance the boss and the junior colleagues?".

He seems to find it challenging to manage his boss and junior colleagues as some of his decisions went against him. This situation is common as most middle-level managers go through in a day to day life in the organization.

My view is as follows.

We do not need to balance any stakeholders with our decisions other than how to make the right decision so that the impact would be more significant and we will not feel guilty about the consequence.



When we make a decision and consider the impact of our decision at a higher level in the hierarchy, as shown in pic, it helps us to make the right decision most of the time.

For example,
as a manager, if you want to do a favor for one of your junior colleagues and the decision will not affect other people in the function or the organization, the decision will be right. If the favor to one person will affect the functional team or even the organization, then the decision may not be the right decision.

i know an entrepreneur with high creditability among his customer's circle, not due to the quality or craftsmanship of his product, but because he always decides in favor of the customer than his organization's short-term expenses. For example, when the customer approaches him for doing the rework in the product due to the customer's mistake of mentioning the wrong specification, he never hesitates to do the rework, and he does it at this expense than arguing with the customer on who is right and what needs to be compensated etc. His generic decision-making thought process puts the higher purpose first than his organization in the short term. In the long run, his decision-making process pays him well as he gets repeated orders from the customers.

My key learning is when we make decisions when we put the higher stakeholder as a priority, likely we will make the right decision, even sometimes, in the short term, we face criticism or pain.

Above all hierarchy of consideration in decision making, listen to your inner consciousness before making any decision, which is more powerful to guide you to make the right decisions than anything else.

Have a great week ahead.

Checklist for better decision making

 

 

As we have been discussing "problem-solving and decision making" in the professional front for solving chronic issues, we have outlined some insights on data, analysis, converging to solutions, selling to others, and making the action plan. The next step before execution is timely decision-making.
 
I have observed in many organizations that despite the leadership teams being presented with data analysis and the approach to solving the problem, many managers/leaders struggle with indecisiveness.
 
Indecisiveness can be defined as the inability to take any decision or delay the decision despite given facts and knowhow.

The reason for indecisiveness is that we are stuck between emotional and logical bais.
 
Decision-making is one of the key attributes of effective managers/leaders. We need to learn to strike a balance between emotional and logical bias in the decision-making process.

One logical approach some effective people use is the checklist for making decisions.
 
The typical checklist will help you to think clearly and go with conviction with the decision.
 
Given below some of the checklists for taking business decisions for solving chronic problems
 
1.What is the decision's impact on Productivity, Quality, Delivery  &  Cost aspects of the business? (will give clarity on which one you are solving as a compelling issue)
2.How the decision will affect the people at the function and organizational level? ( give clarity on decision impact on small or majority of the people)
3.How this decision will help the customer at large?( will give more clarity and conviction as your purpose is higher than you )
4. What other alternatives I have for this decision? ( will help you to revisit your existing decision and to find something better)
5. Am I missing any aspects in this decision? ( final check on assumptions)
6. What is the impact of this decision in one year / three years down the line?( give clarity the importance or significant of this decision on time frame…if it is insignificant, why to break our heads now? )
7. What are the opinion of the key stakeholders on this decision? ( to check the majority's pulse, sometimes others may be right !!)
 
 You may use the above checklists when you are in a dilemma in making important business decisions, as this helps you to overcome your emotional bias.
 
Have a great week ahead. 

Wisdom from Experience

 Last week, i happened to meet one of my coaches after 12 years gap. He is one of the highest-paid CEO coaches in India, and even now, he is very active in coaching and training high-profile people in business. 

In 2009, i attended his intense training programme, and he spotted me due to my peculiar and nasty behaviors during the session. I benefited immensely from the programme, and he was instrumental in my decision to venture into coaching and consultancy.

I did not dare to contact him after the programme since he expects high performance from his students. Coincidentally, i completed ten years of my venture this month with reasonable impact or success. So, i thought of meeting him to express my gratitude to him for shaping my profession and asked for an appointment. Immediately he agreed to meet and met him in his office last week.

He had spent more than 75 minutes with me, and the discussion went around those horrible and enjoyable experiences in the training session, my venture experience, success/failures, revenue, growth aspects, and so on..He also shared some of his life experiences, and the meeting went on just casual.

after returning home, when i assimilated the conversations between us, stunningly, i realized that he shared many pearls of wisdom from his rich coaching experience just casually..( he did not charge anything as he seemed to be happy as a guru about my transformation/performance post-training session!!)

i thought even though it was a private discussion and the wisdom he shared with me could be helpful for anyone in the professional setup, either as an individual or an entrepreneur.

Hence i have listed some of the pearls of wisdom i learned as follows. 

1. Identfying the purpose of life at an early age is a must for everyone as it opens up huge potential and life experiences. He even suggested Simon Sinek's books on structurally learning the process of knowing our purpose..( sometime back, we shared the "start with why" book written by Simon Sinek).

2. Either individual or organization, one should know our "Core Competency"  and work on it than cribbing too much on weakness or competition

3. Know your niche and be aware of your core competency in business. Keep on polishing it rather than  diversifying in many skills  

4. You are known for your craft ....go depth on it and improvise it.

5. dilemma on scaling up or being content with the existing status quo is purely individual, or entrepreneur choice..what works for you will work for you. ...anything you make it happen if you decide on it either way...your temperament matters.

6. Do not copy any business model; each business model will work for the entrepreneur's mindset and values. What works for you, you will work and be happy with the process. The other side is always green, and you may not know the struggles in it.

7. one way of scaling up in today's environment is to productize your knowledge and experience in the niche segment.

8. You must be happy with what you have and what you are.

Hope you may relate it to your professional challenges

i thought those are profound, and wisdom comes from experience ..can be applied to anyone in life

Have a great week ahead.

Developing Action Plan skill

 Developing Action Plan skill 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

On the topic of structured problem solving for chronic issues in the organization, we have discussed the importance of data, data analysis, getting into causes, and selling the ideas to others. In selling ideas to others, each manager must learn one critical skill: "making an action plan."

Action plan :

• An action plan is planning the action in terms of what, who, when, and sometimes explaining by how.
• The action plan is about articulating what needs to be done to solve the problem, who is supposed to be accountable for the action and when the action is to be completed.
• It is all about setting the direction for others to solve the problem

Making an action plan is nothing but the manager's conviction on the solution part.

 
One typical pattern i observe in many young managers is that they are good at data collection, analyzing the data, and identifying the causes, but stuck at converging on the solution part with conviction.
 
Why are we stuck in making the action plan stage? 
 
The simple reason is uncertainty about the future outcome, fear about the consequence of failure, and worry too much about others on rejection. That is natural for anyone, but one who overcomes it emerges as a  better manager/leader in their profession.
 
There are many techniques/formats available like 5W1H / 3W1H, which can be learned as knowhow.

However, the lack of courage is pulling us into making the consolidated action plan skill, which we can develop with awareness and by practice whenever the opportunity comes.
 
Benefits of developing the skill  :
 
When we improve the craft of making an action plan,

• our communication or articulation ability is increasing even in day-to-day conversations
• enhances our comprehensive skill  in any complex situation  
• Team perceive us as a leader as they need someone to guide them on things to be done

 
Hence, developing the skill of making an action plan is an art that can be developed by learning the techniques and practicing.
 

Have a great week ahead.

Overcoming fear of failure with REASONING

 

                                                       
 

On the subject of fear of failure in selling our ideas or solutions to others in a professional setup, we discussed the reason for fear and its impact. We listed the following approach to overcome the fear.

1. Redefine the failure
2. Imposing Logical / reasoning over emotions
3. Learning attitude
 
As we have discussed "Redefining the failure" last week, let us discuss the "Imposing Logical / reasoning over emotions" now.
 
As we are aware that fear is just a feeling or emotion and it does not have any logic or meaning in it, however, it has the power to control our actions.

One of the approaches experts suggests countering the feeling with reasoning. 

What is meant by reasoning?

It is the action of thinking about something logically, sensible way. The reasoning has more facts and logic.

For example, when you take some initiative in the organization, you may worry about the consequence of failure as it may affect you in terms of creditability, or you may lose time or money. During those moments, when you counter the feeling with logical thinking or questions, that is called reasoning.
 
The following logical thinking or questions will help to manage the emotions of fear.
 
How many times in the past have we failed in our new initiatives?
Even if it failed, what were the changes in the assumptions and in the environment made to fail?
What would worst happen if we fail again?
What are the options available to correct even if we fail?
What benefit would happen if we move ahead and succeed in the initiative?

So, countering emotions with logical thinking will help to overcome the fear to some extent...

The other approach is getting into action, fail and perceive the failure as a learning experience.

The point is that as professionals, we may encounter many situations to deal with emotion, and how we manage and move ahead differentiates us from others.

Have a great week ahead.

Silence-Book Review

 Silence-Book Review

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

Recently one of my friends gifted me the book " Silence- The Power of Quiet in a world full of Noise" and read it.

The author is a Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh explains how mindfulness is the practice that stops the noise inside and allows be happy irrespective of the external environment with simple language and easy-to-read flow.

In today's world of much distraction outside, we miss living in the moment, and this book shows simple practices to follow mindfulness even when you are eating, in traffic, or at any event.

This book is not one time read a book and move on, but to practice in the day-to-day event, which i think is required for every one of us to feel completeness inside.

Recommend this book if you are interested in exploring and practicing mindfulness.
 
Have a great week ahead.

Redefining failure to overcome the fear of failure

 

 

On the subject of "fear of failure in selling our ideas or solutions to others" in a professional setup, last week, we discussed the reason for fear and its impact. We listed the following approach to overcome it.

1. Redefine the failure
2. Imposing Logical / reasoning over emotions
3. Learning attitude

 Let us further understand each approach
 
Redefine the failure:
 
Smart people are using this approach to redefine their success or failure in any event when they have a fear of failure and progressing further.
 
For example,

let us consider the following situation.
 
Your organization has shortlisted you and other colleagues to elevate to the higher roles and assigned a challenging task that you have not done so far. To get finalized, you need to go through the assessment and interview. You have fear inside whether you will succeed in the new role. You have a dilemma to go for an interview or not.
 
In this situation, how you define your success or failure will help you to overcome the fear and progress to the next step.
 
Completing the new assignment will be a function of many factors like team dynamics and changes in external and internal business environments. Those factors may not be in your control. At this moment, you have control only over how you do in the assessment and interview process.

In this kind of situation, smart people redefine their success in such a way that "doing well in the interview is success" at the moment. Again in the next step, they redefine their success or failure in new assignments as how they perform well using the experience and giving their best. That mindset and focus on their performance will help them navigate the interview process well and to the next step.
 
This way of redefining will help to manage the fear factors.
  
You can relate this approach to M.S Dhoni's style of leadership. When captaincy came to him to lead the Indian cricket team, someone asked him whether he feared failure in the new role. He responded that "success or failure in a cricket match depends on how other players do their job; let me focus on what i can do best during the game." 
 
We do instill that mindset of defining success or failure in any event.
 
To sum up,
 

• Effective people break up the event in multiple steps.
• They focus on their performance/influence in each step and ignore the external force. 
• That mindset of redefining the success or failure helps them manage the fear of failure.

 
Let us discuss other approaches next week.
 
Have a great week ahead.
 
 

Managing "Fear of Failure" in selling ideas

 Managing "Fear of Failure" in selling ideas 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)
 

 

As we discussed the emotional aspects preventing us from selling our idea or solutions to others, we have discussed the fear of rejection last few weeks. The next fear most of us go through is fear of failure. Let us understand the insights on fear of failure and the approach to managing the fear of failure.

Whenever we have some idea or suggestion to offer, internally, we fear failure. We worry about the negative outcome and the consequence of failure. That is fear of failure.

Why this fear of failure comes to our mind?

1) The experts say the origin of fear may be our experience or our environment. We might have experienced some failure or bitter experience in the past in similar circumstances.

For example, in one of my client organizations, the management is reluctant toward low-cost automation. When we go deeper into the reason for that behavior, we realize that they had invested money in many automation projects in the past and have not succeeded as expected. That bad experience prevents them from thinking about any future investments in automation.
 
2) Also, when something goes wrong, most of us associate the experience with a personal failure and blame ourselves. The more we have past bad experiences and blame ourselves, the more we get the feeling of fear of failure.
 
We might have observed that the younger generations take more risks in any adventure in business or career since they do not have any past references. In contrast, the experienced people would think twice in any venture as they might have experienced both positive and bad outcomes in the past.

Hence, the reasons for fear of failure are our past bitter experiences and the tendency to personally associate ourselves with the outcome.

Impact of fear of failure?

Since the future is unknown, fear of failure is common and natural. When we realize the fear and take action, there is an equal probability of winning and failure in any event. If we do not overcome, we end up with the status quo, and progress will be muted.

How do you overcome the fear of failure in selling the ideas to others?

Fear is just emotion, and this can be managed with the following approach

1. Redefining the failure
2. Imposing Logical / reasoning over emotions
3. Learning attitude

Let us discuss the approach and insights next week!
 
Have a great week ahead.

How to sell ideas with EXECUTION clarity?

 

We have been discussing the emotional aspects that prevent us from selling our idea or solutions to others. Last week, we discussed one approach to overcome the fear of rejection by bringing the business sense to any solutions. The next approach to overcome the rejection possibility is to provide clarity on the execution.
 
When will other people say "NO" to your idea or solutions despite realizing the business value? Only when they are uncertain about the execution because it is natural for every human being to avoid complexity or risk aversion.

If the solutions seem to be complex, anyone tries to delay the decision-making process by citing many practical reasons.
 
For example, if someone offers you advice to improve your skillset to enhance your professional growth. What would be your reaction? Even though you are aware of the importance of skill development, if you are not sure about the area in which you need to improve your skillsets, the method of developing a skillset, and affordability, you will not take the advice seriously. The reason is the lack of clarity on the execution. That is normal human behavior.

Likewise, in professional dealing, others will accept your solutions or idea only when they are sure about the execution plan in simple terms.
 
For example,

i witnessed in one of the organizations that the business head wanted the team to improve the product rejections by 50 % in a year. Everyone understood the importance of the initiative; however, the business head was not comfortable spending money due to a lack of clarity on the execution by his second-level reportees.

With many iterations, one of the senior managers presented the different approaches or paths the team was going to adopt to improve the quality with a timeline for each approach, say through supply chain improvements, awareness creation to the team, inhouse process improvements, design improvements, educating the customers on handling the product and so on. In each approach, he presented with clear timeline and challenges in each step and mitigation plan. By sensing the clarity of the execution plan, the business head approved the solution and funded it for implementation. The organization achieved what it had planned in less than a year.

The key to getting the acceptance of your proposal is giving clarity to anyone on how we are going to execute it. The clarity could be on the approach you adopt or the phasing/timeline plan and the risk mitigation plan during execution.

The more you provide clarity on the path, the more likely, you will get the success in selling your approach to anyone.

Breaking the complexity into simple, multiple steps and sequencing is the key to bringing clarity. The art of bringing clarity can be learned with practice.

Have a great week ahead.