Making decisions is hard. Being certain you have made the right one is even harder. Unfortunately, a decision’s impact isn’t clear until after it has been made. This is why many of us try to take our time when thinking through our options, especially since our choice can impact more than just the company– it can also impact real people’s lives. In the worst-case scenario, we freeze under the pressure of this reality.
When you are in the number one seat, you don’t get the privilege of suffering from decision paralysis. They have to get made, and often, you have to be the one who makes them.
I spoke with Clint Rusch, current President of NorthPoint Logistics and a former U.S. military member, about how he makes mission-critical decisions quickly. Clint’s relentless pursuit of efficiency helps cement him as one of the smartest CEOs I didn’t already know.
Here are the top 3 lessons I took from Clint’s episode:
- Make fewer decisions to make better ones faster.
- The hardest decision you ever have to make should be to let someone go.
- Leverage frameworks for defining who owns which decisions to get the best out of your people.
Lesson #1: Make fewer decisions to make better ones, faster.
We have all heard “practice makes perfect” when it comes to improving performance. If you want to make better decisions, says Clint, the opposite is true. Rather than acting as the decider for every forward step of a project–or company– identifying who the decision-maker really is can help you make fewer throughout your day. Clint gets incredibly specific with his teams: he schedules meetings with the title “Decision: [Insert Decision to be Made Here]” and includes the name of the decider in the meeting description. Doing so ensures everyone shows up oriented towards making that decision.
That degree of specificity also gives precious minutes back to the team to execute. Clint is regularly able to schedule 60-minute meetings that end up running for about 15 minutes. No more “violent agreement,” as he calls it, where people argue about things they are already aligned on. Just relentless execution.
Lesson #2: The hardest decision you ever have to make should be to let someone go.
For Clint, deciding to terminate anyone’s employment should be the hardest decision you ever make as a leader. He regularly tells his team that not only is this supposed to be really hard, but also that it should hurt. And for that same reason, it’s important you do not stagnate in trying to find the perfect way to follow through on this decision. It is impossible to protect everyone’s feelings in the process. Trying to achieve perfection and reduce hurt feelings to zero will be a disservice both to the business and to the people impacted by this decision. Rather than delay, be authentic, empathetic, and intentional in how you make the decision and deliver the news.
Lesson #3: Leverage frameworks to get the best out of your teams.
Indecision is worse than not making any choice at all. As Clint puts it, you can either have a guaranteed loss or the possibility of a win, so why not aim for the win? One of your responsibilities as a leader is to empower your people to make their own decisions and take ownership of the problem-solving process. There are 2 frameworks Clint uses to provide his teams with the flexibility they need to deliver results.
The first is called “Tight, Loose, Tight.” This framework requires you to be “tight” on expectations, “loose” on how it gets done, and “tight” on accountability. Clint cites the development of business performance dashboards he asked IT to create as an example. He was “tight” on what he wanted the dashboards to visualize, “loose” on how IT created them, and tight on the timeline for completion.
The second framework is “10:80:10.” With this framework, you are responsible for getting the team from 0%-10%. The team is responsible for getting the project to 90%. The last 10% is collaborative, with everyone working together to finalize the deliverables. It’s in that middle 80% where your team’s expertise, creativity, and problem-solving skills get to shine. The value of this framework is in what it circumvents: the fear of starting from scratch and the anxiety of needing to have achieved perfection before bringing it back to the decision-maker.
Not all frameworks are right for all situations, and you must be adaptable. However, establishing this structure with your teams will give them the guidance they need to do their best work without expecting you to micromanage their progress.
To learn more from Clint about how to make the right decisions as fast as possible, make sure to check out the full episode!
About Best Places to Lead
Your company has the potential to be great. The leader’s responsibility is to unlock that potential – or doom it to mediocrity.
On the LIVE Best Places to Lead show, you’ll learn the hard-fought lessons from the front lines earned by business leaders who have already had their teeth bashed in and lived to tell about it. We’ll share the tips, tricks, mindsets, and frameworks that allow great leaders to lead differently.
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