I’ve traveled throughout the country over the past years conducting workshops on time management and getting results–and boy do I get an ear full.

One of the most popular points of discussion about productivity is about the role the manager plays.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard about a manager’s indecisiveness or trouble getting critical items finished because he or she procrastinates.

One thing is for sure – a leader’s decision-making impacts credibility. So, take a moment now to think about your decision-making. Why take a moment?  Decision-making is so natural, so automatic many of us aren’t aware of our decision-making style let alone how skilled we may or may not be.

I believe that decision-making is not only a skill but is also key in leadership and management competency.

Master The 4 Key Decision Making Styles

Leading and managing entails a lot of decision-making in a variety of situations and most of us default to our natural decision-making style most of the time, no matter the situation. Did you know there are natural decision-making styles or preferences? Also, did you know that your personality type plays a significant role in that style?

The leadership and management challenge, however, is that the same style is not best or optimal for every situation.

These are the four most common styles. Take a moment to determine which is your most natural:

  • spontaneous - may be best described as “shooting from the hip” – reactive and emotion based
  • decisive – firm and unwavering (sometimes to a fault – can be seen as inflexible)
  • methodical – decisions are made by gathering information and accessing the information step-by-step
  • inclusive – the need to include all interested parties in the decision making process as much as possible

Note: each of these has an extreme that can undermine the effectiveness of it’s use depending on the situation.

Where do you fit the most? Certainly it’s not all one all the time – but most of us have a typical style with which we are most comfortable.

To power up your effectiveness, you need to develop an awareness of your natural default style (you cannot change what you cannot see) and then make a conscious effort to train yourself to use the others where appropriate.

Additionally, learn the natural style of each of your team members. With that knowledge,  you’ll be amazed at how that will help you and your team enhance the collaborative experience by reducing friction and creating more synergistic results.

How will you enhance your decision-makings skills and how will you coach your team to improve theirs as well? For myself, when I first learned this information, I challenged myself to make decisions faster in certain situations rather than spending too much time analyzing. That was even a time saving strategy! What decision-making change will it be for you?

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About JoAnn Corley

JoAnn is an Employee Training & Development Specialist who considers herself a champion of human potential and deeply believes we need to put the human back in human resource. She has recently launched a mobile learning-training app called The 1% Edge Portable Coach (available on all smartphone platforms), authored several books, conduct professional development workshops through-out North America on such topics as creative & innovative thinking, manager as coach, emotional intelligence, time & organizational management, team collaboration to name a few. She is also a featured guest on radio and on-line publications across the country. You can find JoAnn on her website, Twitter, and Facebook.