Decision-making within diverse teams often feels like a delicate dance between two extremes.
On one side, there’s the need to act decisively with limited information to make timely decisions. This urgency can lead to errors and misjudgments, skipping deeper analysis and potentially overlooking critical factors. Quick decisions may rely on assumptions, gut feelings, or initial impressions, increasing the risk of cognitive biases.
On the other side, seeking excessive data can result in analysis paralysis, where decision-making is delayed because there’s always more information to consider. Too much data can be overwhelming, making it difficult to find a clear path forward. Delays in decision-making can lead to missed opportunities or an inability to respond promptly to changing conditions.
The paradox lies in balancing these extremes. Acting decisively is crucial in many situations, especially when time is of the essence. However, relying solely on limited information can lead to poor decisions. Conversely, thorough information gathering is essential for informed decision-making, but excessive data can stall the process, leading to missed opportunities and uncertainty.
Leaders’ attitudes, behaviours, and communication styles influence how decisions are made, how information is gathered, and how risks are managed. The culture and environment they create can either foster a balanced approach to this paradox or lead to undesirable extremes.
Here’s how leadership can influence decision-making and help find the sweet spot between rushed decisions and analysis paralysis:
- Set the Organizational Culture: Leaders who demonstrate a balanced approach to decision-making set a standard for others. By valuing both decisive action and thorough information gathering, they encourage their teams to find the right balance.
- Communicate Values and Priorities: Leaders must communicate the importance of adaptability, flexibility, and a growth mindset. If they emphasize speed and results, the organization will lean toward decisive action. If they prioritize thorough analysis, it might foster excessive information gathering.
- Manage Risks and Encourage Adaptability: Leaders who are aware of risks and actively manage them can guide the organisation in making informed decisions without unnecessary delays. They can promote a culture of calculated risk-taking by encouraging teams to assess risks, seek advice, and gather information when needed.
- Embrace Adaptability and Flexibility: Leaders should encourage an open-minded approach to decision-making, where teams are willing to adjust strategies as new information emerges. A growth mindset recognizes mistakes as opportunities for learning and growth.
- Provide Guidance and Support: Leaders who offer guidance and mentorship help their teams navigate complex decision-making processes. Sharing experience and expertise, they advise on when to act and when to gather more information, empowering teams without micromanaging.
- Set Clear Expectations: By establishing goals and priorities, leaders help teams understand the boundaries for decision-making. Realistic expectations encourage a balanced approach, indicating when decisive action is required and when thorough analysis is necessary.
- Influence Decision-Making Processes: Leaders establish frameworks and processes for decision-making within the organization. Clear guidelines, decision criteria, deadlines, and checkpoints help ensure consistency and prevent analysis paralysis.
- Encourage Diverse Perspectives: Promoting diversity and inclusion in decision-making creates a more robust process. Input from individuals with different backgrounds, skills, and perspectives leads to more comprehensive analysis and better decisions. Leaders should facilitate collaboration and open communication, valuing diverse viewpoints.
- Create a Positive Decision-Making Environment: Building trust within teams creates an environment where individuals feel comfortable sharing ideas and making decisions. Psychological safety encourages creativity, experimentation, and open communication. Leaders can build trust by demonstrating integrity, transparency, and consistency.
- Encourage Innovation and Experimentation: Creating a culture open to new ideas and risks supports a balanced approach to decision-making. Leaders can promote innovation by providing resources for experimentation and recognizing successful outcomes, encouraging teams to explore possibilities without fear of failure.
How self-awareness can help leaders make decisions
In order to bring these ten actions together, leaders also require a comprehensive understanding of self and others. Self-awareness is the key ingredient for making good decisions within a team.
Jungian personality theory, represented in the Insights Discovery Model, describes the three key dichotomies that represent different aspects of human cognition and behaviour. These dichotomies help understand individual differences in how people perceive the world, make decisions and gather information. The combination of these dichotomies creates a wide range of personality types:
- Extraversion vs. Introversion: Extraverts are energized by the external world, including social interactions, activities, and experiences. They tend to make decisions quickly, often relying on external input and group dynamics. They may be comfortable with decisive action and less concerned with thorough analysis. On the other hand introverts are energized by their internal world, including thoughts, ideas, and solitary activities. They tend to take their time with decision-making, valuing thoroughness and deeper understanding.
- Thinking vs. Feeling: Thinkers prioritize logic, objectivity, and consistency. They tend to make decisions based on logical criteria, emphasizing consistency and rationality. Feelers prioritize personal values, empathy, and harmony. They consider the emotional impact of decisions and are sensitive to relationships.
- Sensing vs. Intuition: Sensors prefer concrete, observable information and details. They tend to base decisions on concrete data and proven methods. Intuitives prefer abstract concepts, patterns, and possibilities. They are more comfortable with ambiguity and might favour innovation over tradition.
Understanding these preferences helps leaders appreciate diverse perspectives within their teams and develop effective decision-making strategies, taking these preferences into account.
By recognizing the different ways people gather information, make decisions, and organize their lives, we can foster a more inclusive and balanced approach in various contexts.
By leveraging the strengths of each preference, individuals and teams can achieve a balanced approach that combines decisiveness with thorough analysis, leading to more effective and adaptable outcomes.
About the Author
Mark Leisegang is currently Practice Lead – Education, at global people development company Insights. Mark is an experienced professional with a diverse background spanning business analysis in corporate banking, CFO roles across various sectors and successful leadership as the Managing Director of Insights Africa with Connemara, and the Head of New Markets (APAC, Africa, Middle East and South America) with Insights. He has delivered more than 250 Insights Discovery workshops, has worked with Executive and Senior Teams across many sectors including financial, tourism, retail, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and technology, and has delivered sessions across Africa, APAC, Europe and the Middle East.
