Why Your Team Struggles with Decision-Making
by Margie DuBois, CPC
April 3, 2024
As a leadership coach and consultant, I’m used to hearing about pain points on teams. Whether they’re related to leadership transitions, strategic plans, or personnel management, all circumstances usually relate to one central theme: decision-making.
I often hear things like: “Our leadership team really struggles at our meetings and can’t reach consensus on anything,” or: “Our company can’t make decisions anymore without people freaking out about everything.”
Decision-making is a sore spot for most teams, and it’s become a bigger challenge coming out of the pandemic. Leaders have learned that careful decision-making (coupled with empathy and accountability) is essential for retaining talent and building strong teams.
However, the reality is that most leaders aren’t taught how to make decisions - and many teams fail to identify the root of their decision-making problems. While decision-making is a real challenge, usually there are other issues operating underneath the surface.
So what contributes to the decision-making fatigue? Here are five common reasons why your team might be stuck:
1. You don’t have decision-making systems that work for your team
Your businesses likely has processes established for HR, finance, and marketing. It should be no different with decision-making. Without clearly defined processes, it’s very hard to make productive and fair decisions.
If you haven’t already, create a system that your team likes that you can follow a majority of the time. When you have a documented system, it gets your team focused on roles, responsibilities, and outcomes instead of politics and people.
2. You don’t have roles identified for different types of decisions
Related to number one, there should be actual roles and responsibilities for your team when it comes to decision-making scenarios.
Who is the ultimate approver of each type of decision? Who is responsible for driving projects through, and who are the people assigned to helping that person? Last, who do you need to collaborate with, depending on the topic?
Over time, if you don’t have clearly defined roles and responsibilities, your team will start believing that everyone is a decision-maker, or should be part of every decision. Or the louder and more dominant voices in the room are given more weight than others.
Things get murky when certain people are given too much political influence or everyone believes they have a vote at the table. It's your job as a leader to clearly define roles and appropriate engagement.
3. You don’t have clear goals or a strategic plan to inform your decisions
Often times teams struggle with making decisions because they don’t know their North Star. Many organizations operate without an annual or strategic plan, or even worse - a plan that is confusing, unrealistic, and lacks buy-in from the broader team.
When you have company goals clearly identified, you have something objective to point to during tough conversations. This keeps your team grounded and focused what is best for the organization - not particular individuals.
4. Your team lacks the communication skills you need to facilitate decision-making conversations
When you peel back the layers of decision-making fatigue, it is (almost always) less about the decisions themselves, and more about how people are communicating during and after key conversations.
Skills like active listening, validation, and emotional intelligence are essential competencies for every leader to have - yet few have the training or experience they need to feel confident using these skills.
All employees have a fundamental need to feel seen, valued, and heard. When there is disagreement on a decision, employees are less likely to express resistance if they genuinely feel their feelings and perspectives have been taken into consideration.
To build trust, it's also important to communicate out the decision you made in a thoughtful and consistent way. Remember that alignment - an understanding of where the team has arrived, despite disagreement - is often more important than consensus. The latter is usually unrealistic for most teams to achieve.
5. Your leadership team struggles with conflict
Saving the best for last. Whether or not people realize it, conflict avoidance is almost always the root of decision-making pain points on a team. Leaders often avoid making difficult decisions (or make the wrong one) to prevent upsetting their employees. Without knowing it, some people also circumvent processes to get things done faster without pushback. Both of these tendencies lead to larger problems down the road.
Conflict management is an essential workplace skill - yet most employees don’t know how to navigate conflict and facilitate difficult conversations. Part of authentic leadership is normalizing the fear and discomfort that comes when making important decisions, and being transparent with others along the way. Your employees should know how, when, and why you are including them (if you do), and when you have already reached a decision.
Healthy decision-making involves choosing courage over comfort and being able to say: “I respect your feelings and understand that you disagree with my decision. And I feel confident that I’ve made the right choice for our team.”
. . .
If decision-making was easy, people wouldn’t talk about it all the time. It's perfectly human to struggle with it at work, especially when you don't have the resources you need to facilitate crucial conversations.
If you or your team is feeling stuck with the way you collaborate, make decisions, and lead together, please know that you aren’t alone. Consider having an open conversation with your colleagues about the root(s) of your team’s challenges, and get honest about where you need to grow and ask for help.
About This Feature
Coaching Nuggets is a standing editorial feature in The Thirlby Co. Monthly Digest written by our company founder, Margie (Thirlby) DuBois, and occasional guest authors. Each nugget provides you with a quick read and resources to spark ideas and help you live your best life.
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