Quality of Your Management Decisions
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How to Improve the Quality of Your Management Decisions
Quantity Versus Quality Management Decisions
As even the newest manager knows the step up from worker to management, at any level, the biggest change in the workplace is the sheer number of decisions you’re asked to make. This is a major area of the different territory the newer manager must address.
Even the experienced manager often wonders if the parade of requests for decisions will ever take a timeout. Of course, the veteran manager knows the answer: no. Much like the athletic coach, military officer, elected official, or air traffic controller, the decision requirement never takes a vacation, sick day, or hiatus.
The important factor in this equation is the tradeoff of the quantity versus quality of your management decisions. New managers should soon realize that this tradeoff must be made on a daily basis. It is impossible to find the time to research and/or analyze every one of the volume of management decisions needed every work day.
The quantity versus quality question appears and reappears constantly. The experienced manager has the advantage of having made many of these decisions repeatedly, learning the good from the bad. Yet, questions often remain regarding the wisdom of many of these seemingly small or insignificant decisions. This is natural and warranted.
Newer managers must develop a strong sense of confidence and comfortability as quickly as possible with making the quantity of decisions required. They must learn what works and what doesn’t quickly. However, it is imperative that both newer and veteran managers always strive for quality amidst the volume of daily decisions they must make.
Over the long-term, the quality of your management decisions will have the most significant effect on your career, more important than any other factor. Even at the first level of management, CEOs are born based on the quality of their management decisions. Here are five tips to improve the quality of your management decisions, regardless of where you currently reside on your company’s organization chart.
Five Ways to Improve Your Management Decision Quality
Improving the quality of your management decisions is more a state of mind than adopting technical techniques or your education level. These five tips will immediately improve quality regardless of the quantity of decisions you face daily.
- Eliminate personal and/or professional biases. Making decisions based on personal or professional biases can be counter-productive and, sometimes, a career killer. The added variable of keeping any biases a secret is often impossible to satisfy. Once your peers or superiors become aware that a bias influenced a decision, managers’ abilities can quickly become suspect.
- Consider only the “right” data and information. Eliminate data that just supports your preferred decision. Even minor decisions should be based on good data. The right data should include both sides of any issue, not just the information that supports your position. Finding the negative data improves the quality of your decisions just as strongly as the positive information.
- Don’t give heavy weight to pre-existing or long-term opinions or practices. Basing your decisions on the oft-quoted “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” mantra is often a bad option. Commonly accepted opinions are often invalid for decision making as they are typically based on faulty information. Original thinking and research will help you make better quality decisions.
- Avoid considering decisions in a pre-determined targeted fashion. This tip can be a bit challenging. Obviously, all management decisions target problem solving, implementing ideas or procedures, designing policies, or improving operations. The target is important. However, pre-determining a decision before having the facts often leads to ineffective and/or bad decisions.
- Downplay the exciting or colorful information. It’s easy to gravitate toward the “flashy” data when making decisions. Unfortunately, this is too often the wrong process. While you may achieve some star points initially for a colorful decision, the long-term effects may or may not be beneficial to the company or to you.
A manager’s work day is filled with decision-making, both large and small issues. Making quality decisions remains a critical job responsibility. During down economies, the quality factor of your decisions is even more important since there is less margin for error. The number of management decisions typically remains constant, but the requirement for quality actions takes on more criticality.
Consider these tips to help you improve your track record of quality decisions to help your employer reach its goals successfully and to assist in your career development and progress. Taking this subject seriously may separate you from your peers and give you an advantage when the next lucrative promotion opportunity exists.