3 Key Actions To Improve Your Decision-making

One of the things that currently defines being a business leader is having the agility to quickly adapt to the ever-changing demands and challenges of today’s landscape. We’ve all heard or read how “flexibility” and “resilience” are defining characteristics of successful executives in the post-COVID era. And while I agree with that assessment, I think that flexibility and resilience wouldn’t be anything without a well-developed decision-making ability.

Think about it. You might have implemented a flexible approach to your operations, allowing you to make quick changes based on emerging challenges and demands, thus increasing your resilience.?

However, without robust decision-making, those quick changes can easily turn into disasters. You might end up missing huge business opportunities, throwing money in useless technology, making the wrong adjustments to your operations, or ignoring critical risks, among many other pitfalls.

So, developing a comprehensive decision-making process is key to complementing that flexibility and resilience everyone is talking about. While you may certainly have your own thoughts as to how to do that (which probably involve a combination of technical and operational adjustments), I’d like to add 3 key actions that, to me, can boost your decision-making ability.

Complement Data with the Right Questions

A lot of people seem to believe that adopting data solutions is enough to solidify a robust decision-making process. Putting aside the wrong underlying assumption that data software is plug-and-play, the problem with this approach is that it sees data technology as the only thing a business needs to enhance its decision-making. That’s plain wrong.

While data solutions are essential for a comprehensive decision-making strategy, they’re mere tools. In other words, it’s all about how people make the most of that specific technology and its features. This goes beyond the obvious skill people need to use a particular software and into strategic territory.

What I’m saying is that you need to make changes in your operations and overall approach to the data you use for decision-making. Rather than expecting what the data solution can tell you (aided, most likely, with AI), you have to embrace an interrogative stance as to uncover the gems hidden in the mud of your data lakes.?

Doing this can serve a dual purpose. On the one hand, it’ll allow you to explore new ideas and hypotheses you might have. On the other hand, putting the right questions front and center shows everyone in your team that you can’t assume anything, even if some data seems to confirm those assumptions. It’s always best to keep questioning your operations and results for a continuous enhancement process to appear.?

Develop Cross-functional Teams for Key Decisions

In my last LinkedIn article I discussed what kind of leaders the new normal needs. There, I argued that we should aim to become system leaders,embracing an approach whose “The underlying belief is that the 21st-century world calls for collective action where no single individual has the control nor the ultimate say.”

In other words, we should be banishing the idea of know-it-all leaders from our heads. Instead, we should try to foster collaboration which, in turn, will bring us new perspectives, fresh ideas, and worthy directions to explore when making decisions. How can you do that? By developing cross-functional teams to tackle diverse challenges, especially those related to business opportunities and innovations.

When you create teams with people from different backgrounds, you make sure that you have a myriad of perspectives that can help you take a look at your challenges from diverse standpoints. Thus, you can see new paths forward, come up with innovative solutions to sort out your obstacles, and sophisticate your operations even more.

Be sure that your cross-functional teams have people representing each key area in your company. Thus, you should bring together members of the IT team as well as people from sales, marketing, operations, logistics, accounting, customer service, and any other area you deem valuable.?

Finally, you should consider bringing outside help (like a consultant), which can make you see problems you’re too close to see. This is definitely a must do when tackling problems outside of your area of expertise or, as Bob Leibholz, SVP of Business Development at BairesDev, rightfully points out in this excellent article, when you operate in countries and regions different from your own.?

Clearly Define Accountability

When you start relying on cross-functional teams for your decisions, you’ll unlock the power of diverse perspectives. However, you’ll also lose sight of who is the one that gets the final say in each decision those teams are discussing. You might be thinking “hey, Nacho, I’ll be making the final call—that’s why I’m the leader!” I hear you. Naturally, there’ll be many times when that will be the case.

But given the rapid changes that affect the business landscape right now, you might not be able to be on top of all decisions your business will have to make. So, you need to provide your leadership team and your middle management with enough leeway so they can act on their own when your involvement isn’t crucial. Informed decisions work better when they’re quick!

That’s why you need to clearly define who owns what when tackling diverse projects. You need to determine who will be the one accountable for making the decisions while also defining who needs to be consulted before those decisions are made, and who needs to be informed about the results of the process. By doing that, you’re clarifying the picture for everyone involved, reducing the potential friction that might exist otherwise.

A New Way of Making Decisions

Combining the 3 actions above will take you closer to a better decision-making process. That’s because such a plan has it all—different perspectives to enrich your decision making, relevant data coming from tech solutions, and empowered leaders with freedom to make decisions when needed.

That combination is what any business needs right now in order to meet the fast-emerging demands of the markets and consumers. Is it the only way to do so? Maybe not, but it’s a path that has proven very effective at BairesDev and that can definitely work for your company, too. Give it a try and tell me what you think!