We all know how difficult decision-making processes can be.
Whether it is choosing options for organizational changes or if we are deciding to purchase a new home – both are going to take some time.
In both decisions, you might need help or a lot of thinking with some things, as you are not an expert in all fields you are entering in your life.
Decisions can take time and effort, depending on the structure of transitory levels – are others involved in your decision? How long is the organizational chain to the final decision?
It all starts with little steps that help to get some weight off your back:
1. Delegate
When you buy a new house, you usually would delegate the search and buying process to a real estate agent or a realtor. Makes sense, since it saves you a lot of pain, effort and time – they know what they do to help you to become a new homeowner. They make decisions on your behalf and (hopefully) understand what you are looking for.
As a business owner, manager or leader you know that decisions do not only concern you, but there is a consequent process for you and others as part of an entire organization.
Ask yourself, is there something that someone else would understand better than I do?
Don’t get me wrong, as a leader you have to have a slight knowledge of everything going on in your company, but it is important to think of job roles as people doing jobs in their best awareness and knowledge; why not using that fact to your advantage?
Delegate things off to someone who is intimately involved in those areas or works on that five days a week. And even more important: trust them that they are able to do so.
As soon as someone else knowledgeable is taking care of a decision for the sake of the company, you don’t have to find the time to navigate a process to a decision. You get prepared results from them and go from there.
Not only has this facilitation shortened your review and decision-making process, but it as well generates engagement for employees to contribute to an organizational decision. You are indirectly asking for the workforce individuals’ opinions instead of making decisions over their heads.
2. Hire a Recruiter
When it comes to growing teams, you might have experienced the pain and longevity of hiring processes. Creating a job-ad, screening applications, filtering potential candidates, scheduling interviews, implementing assessments and the final decision can take a good few months. Just think of what else you have on your plate in a daily business operation and how much time you actually have left to take care of new hires.
Employees are the most important asset of your success, so you want to make sure to hire the right fit for your company. How would you do that if you have to make time for the organizational agenda, management, people business and all on top of trying to scour the market for the right candidates?
Easy enough to think back to the delegation point:
Hire a recruiter!
A recruiter that understands your needs and worries, your urgency and your preferences. Ask a team member to assist the recruiter in decisions with who they want to introduce to the company.
Shorten the decision-making process. And, keep it away from occupying the HR-department to find time to respond and have them avoid going through multiple hierarchy levels or letting too much time pass so that you don’t lose out on a potentially interesting resume. Not to mention getting back – top-down – to the person navigating the process with the candidate, having other things on the agenda as well.
Hiring takes resources, effort and time. So don’t let this become another full-time job.
To fight the lack of efficiency it makes sense to work with a well-trained recruiter who knows what is important for you and hand over the power to decide which person you should schedule an interview with.
The recruiter can operate as a contractor or as an employee within the company.
“Pro” for hiring a contractor: commission-based and off your payroll.
“Pro” for hiring an employee: faster acting in the initiating process.
No matter if internal or externally hired, most important is your trust in the recruiter’s gut feeling and providing the help to get you the person or people you are looking for.
Delegate and let them assist you with your final decision. That saves a lot of time and pain and frees resources for your main task as a leader: operating teams and reaching goals.
3. Time management
Being an organizational leader means having a lot to deal with as mentioned in the previous points.
In order to stay focused and efficient in your daily tasks it takes not only delegation, but the ability to prioritize as well to prioritize your time wisely. Keep your door shut when you are working on crucial steps and tasks.
Instead, implement regular office hours for people to talk with you.
And last, but not least, schedule time for your self-management and work with priority lists, which you are willing to give 100 percent of your focus. No distractions, emails or phone calls during your tasking hours.
Richard Branson turned down an hour of speaking for $ 500,000:
“Right now Richard has three main priorities he is focused on and he will only allocate his time to those three priorities, and speaking for a fee is not one of them.” (Darren Hardy, Success Magazine)
When you strictly follow your schedules you will see how productive you will become. 90 minutes of focus will give you the same result as an entire workday with distractions. Try it out! 😉
If you want to know more about productivity, follow this link to my article about Productivity.
The tips above should help you to make life easier when it comes to long periods of decision processes.
Like you use a realtor to find you your new home, you should consider people who work with you for taking some weight off your shoulders by entrusting others with your tasks.
It’s almost magical how efficient a change into a collaborative delegation can increase your output and what ease you will feel in fulfilling your essential To Do’s when you are focused and starting to follow your priorities. The commitment of people being included in decisions becomes exponentially higher.
>> Tell me how you would shorten decision-making processes. Contact me.
