solving problems

Why Your Manager Won’t Make Decisions

September 1, 2021 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

Do you have a manager who drags their feet when it comes to making important decisions?

This can affect your entire team and your ability to get things done. Moreover, the impact of just one manager’s indecisiveness affects your entire business.

How do you handle this?

“It feels like things have come to a screeching halt,” said Maxine. “I have one department that consistently delivers late – and always has excuses. Help!”

The more Maxine and I talked, the greater the evidence became that the department’s poor performance was affecting other areas of the business.

“The latest debacle is this: Earl promised me reports by deadline, but once again, he was late.” Maxine continued. “He blames two of his employees for various things I won’t bore you with. The outcome is that I did not receive these reports I needed by our deadline. We actually lost business because of it.”

“So, this has actually affected the business’s ability to compete,” I responded. “And what is the problem?”

“Well, I used to think that Earl couldn’t hold his team accountable. He kept blaming them for performance issues. But lately, I’ve noticed that he really drags in his decision-making. And one of his employees told me she had been waiting on directives from him for three days – that she couldn’t move forward with her project until he made a decision on something.”

Maxine’s business was in jeopardy. After talking with Earl, I asked if I could talk with other managers, as well. My discovery showed that we actually needed to revisit a basic framework for decision-making with Maxine, and then to work with the managers to have a shared understanding.

Here are some of the comments from Maxine’s managers – and which may be reasons your own manager hesitates to make decisions:

I don’t have the information I need. It’s hard to weigh the pros and cons when I don’t have the info I need and the larger picture.
I’m not sure I have the authority. Does this decision fall to me, or does it need to be made by my leader?
I don’t feel like I have the knowledge or experience. I’m new to this position and not sure I am equipped. What if my decision is wrong? I’m afraid to commit, not knowing what the outcome might be.
My past experiences in making these kinds of decisions were poor. What will happen if I make a mistake?
This decision is a tough one – how will I handle reactions? How do I get people on board?

Implied in each of these statements is a lack of clarity in parameters. If you sit with your managers, you may find that they hesitate in decision-making because of similar feelings. Discussions around this and identifying on what is needed to fill gaps in this area are crucial.

Encouraging them to reach out when they have questions is something you should expect. However, if this is not happening, you may want to have further conversations to explore reasons behind this. For more on this, see How Safe is it for Your Team to Make Decisions Together?

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

How to Retain Your Top Talent

April 3, 2019 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

What keeps CEOs up at night?

Lots of things.

But their #1 concern is attracting and retaining great talent.

And many companies do better at attracting this talent than keeping it.

How much are you losing if you can’t figure this out?

That depends. If you need to retain highly complex positions (managers, software developers and such), you risk missing out up to 800% more productivity, because superior talent is up to 8 times more productive (Keller and Meaney, Leading Organizations).

What is the answer?

Make your company so attractive that no one wants to leave.

Here are five ways to do this:

1. Develop a high-trust culture.

Trust serves as the foundation for all else. Trust is the incubator for healthy communication, collaboration, empowerment, productivity, profitability…in short, all components that support working at highest and best levels.

Does your company lean on “control and monitor” behaviors or heavy compliance?

These are early signs of a problem. How do you begin to turn this around?

It begins with you. Determine how trustworthy you are as CEO, because your company will rate no higher than its leadership. Download the trust infographic and rank yourself – and then ask those closest to you to do the same. Compare. Where do you need to begin developing more trust with your people?

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

2. Foster a company-wide growth mindset.

This kind of mindset is the stuff of motivation and innovation.

A fixed mindset reflects a closed attitude. Language includes phrases like, “That idea won’t work,” or “It can’t be done right now.”

Growth mindset attitude and language, on the other hand, will reflect phrases such as “How might this work? How might this be possible?” Failure is seen as a way to learn and not as a reason to stop trying.

If you notice there are just a handful of people always making decisions for everyone else, this is an indicator that you are not fostering a growth mindset in your employees.

Where can you start?

Begin by what is right in front of you – applaud all new ideas. When asking for input, make it a rule that whenever someone volunteers a new idea, that the first person to speak after that must say something positive about the idea, whether they agree with it or not. This sends the message that all people have something valuable to contribute, and it fosters creativity.

3. Recognize and reward the right things.

Are you emotionally biased toward certain employees and against others?

On a company-wide basis, make sure that your systems and processes for recognition are standardized. Form a taskforce to evaluate this.

And then, have this taskforce identify what should be recognized. Go wide! The way in which you acknowledge things such as caring and supportive behaviors can go a long way; these certainly are influences on business outcomes. And on a personal basis, please take the time to acknowledge contributions and jobs well done. It is free to mention people in meetings to thank them for their efforts – and this kind of approach fosters a caring culture that goes far.

4. Empower your people.

If you feel your people need higher accountability, it may be your systems and processes and not a lack of talent on their part. Start with the basics. Make sure you have clearly outlined expectations for their role and responsibilities.

Then, work together to agree on top goals and priorities for their area of responsibility. Can you show them how these support company-wide goals? Without this foundation, even the best in talent will operate somewhat hesitantly or begin to get lost in the weeds. Make sure you have agreed on a system of reporting that reflects these goals, and which relieves you from chasing your executives for answers (the latter of which is a real trust-killer). By setting this structure in motion, you will empower your talent to move forward with confidence and perform at their best.

5. Invest in leadership development at every level.

Learning and development is a key concern for companies world-wide. And company talent seeks opportunities for growth and career development. Providing employees at every level with leadership development opportunities meets both objectives well.

When you invest in this, you foster greater performance and contribution – and you can also more easily identify rising stars. And as your company talent receives this focused support, they will feel recognized by the company, and motivated by their growth and future opportunities within. It is surprisingly cost-effective to implement a company-wide leadership development effort. And the ROI is exponential (Note: Executive coaching typically yields an ROI of 4-10 times the initial investment; training with a group coaching component can yield similar results.)

Retaining your top talent requires a healthy and exciting culture. If your culture needs a “reboot,” please understand that this takes time and effort. The payoff, however, is exponential, being key to current profitability and future success.

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

Three Ways Adversity Shapes Extraordinary Leadership

August 29, 2018 By Patti Cotton 1 Comment

No one consciously seeks adversity. Oddly, however, confronting fear and uncertainty is what shapes extraordinary leadership.

How can confronting the challenging and unpredictable cause leaders to go from good to great?

And why do some rise to make significant impact for the world around them, while others cause irreparable damage?

It is not the negative challenge that damages – it is the way you respond to it that can make or break your leadership and the impact you cause.

Here are three ways adversity can shape extraordinary leadership.

1. Adversity calls for the “whole leader” to face challenge.

Both your cognitive (competencies) and your emotional (character) skills are called to action as you try to make meaning of the situation and decide how you will respond to it.

Many a leader has fallen because either a character trait has compromised best actions, or a particular competency is not strong enough to execute what needs to be done. In which area do you need to strengthen your own leadership? To begin this self-examination, see How Much Do Others Trust You, which outlines key traits and skills required to build trust and meet challenges effectively.

2. Adversity demands that we bring our best to the front while under pressure.

This is easier said than done. The positive traits with which you regularly lead can quickly become exaggerated and damaging in adverse situations.

For example, under normal conditions, you may enjoy confidence in your opinions while remaining balanced and open to the perspectives of others. However, under pressure, this confidence may turn into a closed-minded dogmatism that does not allow you to consider other alternatives.

Understanding not only how to manage your strengths, but also your tendencies under pressure is important to bringing good responses to bad circumstances. If you are not sure where your own “pressure points” lie, ask a couple of trusted colleagues who have seen you work under pressure. The feedback you receive may make a great difference in your ability to meet the future most effectively.

3. Adversity requires that we learn to make meaning of the new and unexpected.

Our ability to meet difficult circumstances requires that we are able to make meaning of these, and to consider new approaches to solve them. “We cannot solve problems with the same thinking that created them,” quipped Albert Einstein.

This is reflected as we look at Nelson Mandela’s life after his imprisonment of 27 years. The great civil rights leader and former South African president could have incited the country to civil war after being released. However, he saw that reconciliation – not retribution – was what would bring hope and healing to a divided nation. To do this, he had to make meaning of the injustices previously committed, look at a larger and new picture to consider his response, and develop the mindset and approach to meet the challenge.

Warren Bennis, leadership expert and author of On Becoming a Leader once said, “Until you make your life your own, you’re walking in borrowed clothes. Leaders, whatever their field, are made up as much of their experiences as their skills, like everyone else. Unlike everyone else, they use their experiences rather than being used by them.”

Given this, and the potential for you to make even more significant impact through your leadership, how will you choose to meet adversity?

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.