CHAPTER 65 MAKE QUICK (NOT HASTY) DECISIONS
Victor Vroom and Arthur Jago believe the most effective leaders are able to make prompt decisions in times of crisis and uncertainty. They cite the example of Admiral Horatio Nelson’s decision making ‘under the almost unimaginably difficult and confusing conditions of a sea battle’ (Pocock, 1987). But, they go on, ‘decisiveness is also important under normal conditions. Mintzberg (1973) observed that managers are involved in decision making all day long, and the quality of their decisions accumulates when they act decisively’.
I remember speaking to a peer of mine not long after I’d been promoted to my first senior management position. Our boss had been pressing us to make decisions quickly and decisively as we had a large transformation program to deliver and couldn’t afford to mess around. The conversation went something like this:
ME: ‘How do you make quick decisions?’
HIM: ‘One word.’
ME: ‘What’s that?’
HIM: ‘Experience.’
ME: ‘How do I get experience?’
HIM: ‘Wrong decisions.’
Which filled me with a huge amount of confidence. The point he was making — in a not very helpful way, it has to be said — was that in order to make quick decisions, you’re going to get a few wrong from time to time.
That’s not to say that you make hasty decisions — that’s a different kettle of fish.
Paul C. Nutt based his important book Why Decisions Fail on an examination of decision making over a 20-year period. In his view, entrepreneurs were responsible ...
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