A ssociation leaders get into trouble too often because they don’t have good decision-making protocols in place for their organization’s staff or boards. If any of the following scenarios sound familiar, your group may be lacking decision-making mechanisms:
• People ask, “Who is making the decision?” and feel powerless to do anything in the meantime.
• Someone says to you, “Why didn’t anyone tell me about that decision? It impacts my work!”
• Another person asks, “Well, if she’s already made the decision, why did she ask me my opinion?”
• You hear, “When will he decide? He’s holding up everything on my end.”
There are ways to avoid staff frustration and keep those essential to your association from “dropping the ball.” Get in the habit of asking these five questions regularly, and you’ll find that the problem begging your attention might need as little as 60 seconds to solve. When taken care of immediately, issues that have been resolved will save you and others irritation, confusion, hard feelings, lost time and lost opportunities in the long run. And you’ll gain the respect of those you lead, your board members and your volunteers, because they can trust you to make good decisions.
1. What is the decision that needs to be made? What exactly needs to be decided? If you can articulate it, then you can solve the problem. If you can’t, however, then don’t. Before anything can move forward, the problem at hand needs to be clarified.
2. Whose decision is it? This is critical and needs to be communicated upfront. Are you the decision maker? Does the issue warrant a group decision? Do you want input or need a decision from others? Or does the decision really need to be made by someone else? Something that tends to annoy others is when an executive has already made a decision but feigns that the question is still up for discussion. Be honest and let others know that you’ve already made up your mind.
3. What method will be used to make the decision? Will the problem require a consensus, in which everyone has to be able to both live with and support the decision? Or will your issue be decided by a majority, plurality or unanimous agreement—or something else? In group situations, it might be a good idea to discuss which would be most acceptable.
4. When will the decision be made? The timeline for any decision is important for people, especially those whose work is impacted by the issue. Taking too long—or even making an overly hasty decision—can be frustrating to others and create unintended and even dysfunctional outcomes.
5. How and to whom will the decision be communicated? These areas are often overlooked, and yet the success of a decision largely depends on how well it is communicated. As soon as a decision is finalized, a leader or a board needs to deal with follow-up questions: Who needs to know? Who will be the messenger, or how will the message be shared? And through what means will the information be spread: in person, by email, over a loudspeaker? Often the choice of messenger sends a message all its own—will the decision be declared by you or by the head of your board?—and will feel very different to the receivers depending on who relays it.
Now that you have a thought process you can use every time an issue arises, there are four key perspectives to consider that will help you actually make the decision in a more thorough and well-rounded way:
1. What are the facts I know or need to know?
2. What possibilities could evolve from this decision?
3. What things will be impacted by this decision? (Budget, space, etc.)
4. How will people be impacted by this decision? (Employees, clients, volunteers, etc.)
When you are proactive in your decision making and consider the possibilities and the perspectives of others who are likely to be affected, you are running your organization instead of letting it run you. Your fellow staff members will appreciate your time and effort, though, and the fact that you’re decisive—and expect others to be as well. You will be amazed at how much more smoothly your association can run when you get in the habit of making decisions well.