The Hindu Business Line : Are you taking too many decisions?

As a leader you may be busy taking a lot of decisions, which in a way keeps you and those around you feeling your power. But wait. Are you taking too many decisions, without asking in the first place, ‘Whose decision is it?’ asks Gary B. Cohen in Just Ask Leadership ( www.mhprofessional.com)?

When leaders take the burden of responsibility too far, they either want to protect others from making tough decisions or they want to extend their power, he explains. “The result is poor decision making because these leaders don’t have sufficient information.”

Instead of adhering to the old Harry S. Truman adage ‘the buck stops here,’ these leaders should do a better job of clarifying job responsibilities, trusting their co-workers to make good decisions, and then holding them accountable, Cohen advises.

“Employee empowerment begins with leaders asking themselves four words over and over: ‘Whose decision is it?’ Because co-workers might assume that leaders are exempt from the rules and can make any and all decisions, leaders must be extra vigilant about asking this question.”

Managing underground

An operations manager who is skilled in statistical and quantitative analysis but incompetent when it comes to people is not going to get anywhere, observes Scott T. Young in Essentials of Operations Management ( www.sagepublications.com).

An example of success that he mentions is of Home Depot which analysed its management processes and streamlined its hiring practices and performance review processes, placing HR managers in every store.

“Among their management improvements were the centralisation of the purchasing function and the decentralisation of HRM. The actions made sense because purchasing can realise economic gains through bulk purchasing and HR managers need to staff locally.”

D. Murali

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