As specialist executive recruiters for almost 25 years, it’s one of the most common frustrations we still hear from employers. Why are so many executive decision makers reluctant to actually make decisions?
The logic is simple enough. After all, when you’re recruited into a senior decision-making position, it’s only natural you’ll be expected to make decisions. Trouble is, every day managers all over Australia – and the world – struggle to actually do it, putting things off for all manner of reasons and generally erring on the side of procrastination and compromise. Even at a micro level, managerial indecision like this can have a significant impact on the bottom line. But when you extrapolate it to an entire economy, well, the impact is potentially seismic.
One problem. Many causes.
A raft of factors can trigger a lack of confident decision making in a workplace. In some instances, it might be personality related, something which can have ramifications all the way back to your executive recruitment, talent identification and HR processes. While in other situations it can be connected to external forces such as the working environment or corporate culture managers find themselves operating within each day.
While clearly every situation is different, here are some of the more common factors to watch out for if you’re looking to encourage more effective decision-making in your business. It can be particularly important to keep these things in mind when you’re actively looking to recruit new talent through an executive search process.
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Failing to prioritise or delegate correctly – no matter how good a decision-maker may be, they can’t decide everything every time. Whether it’s done intuitively, or they’ve learned strategies to help them over the years, the most effective managers are typically adept at prioritising what they really need to take care of themselves – and delegating what they don’t to others...