Styles of Making Decisions for Leaders

As a leader it probably doesn’t surprise you that you make anywhere from 50 to 200 plus decisions a day.   These decisions can range from figuring out which big project your team should prioritize, resolving conflicts, negotiations, hiring of candidates, budgeting, new product strategies, and many many more.

Your decision-making style is all about what you do when faced with these choices. Do you gather as many opinions as possible? Trust your gut? Let others decide?

There’s no one right way to reach a conclusion.  Your decision-making style is your default approach for processing situations and making choices, and it will be different from leader to leader.  It is important to recognize your own decision-making style.

To help aid you, understanding the 4 different decision-making styles can help you in times when you need to make a choice.  You can play to your strengths or your team's, mitigate your weaknesses, and tailor your approach to best suit a specific situation.

Authoritative: In authoritative type the leader is the sole decision maker which subordinates follow. The leader has all the information and expertise required to make a quick decision. It is important that the leader is a good decision maker as it is he who has to own up to the consequences of his decision. Though effective, in case the leader is an experienced individual, it can harm the organization if the leader insists on an authoritative type of decision making even when there is expertise available within the team.

Facilitative: In facilitative type of decision making, both the leader and the subordinates work together to arrive at a decision. The subordinates should have the expertise as well as access to the information required to make decisions. Such an approach could be useful when the risk of wrong decision is very low. It is also a great way of involving and encouraging subordinates in the working of the organization.

Consultative: As the name suggests, consultative decisions are made in consultation with the subordinates. However, the fact remains that unlike in the facilitative decision-making style, in consultative decision-making it is the leader who holds the decision-making power. A wise leader tends to consult their subordinates when they think that they have valuable expertise on the situation at hand.

Delegative: As per the term, the leader passes on the responsibility of making decisions to one or more of his subordinates. This type is usually adopted by the leader when he is confident of the capabilities of his subordinates.

Take control of your meetings by implementing one of the above approaches and make it clear to your audience what type of decision-making style you will be utilizing.