Seattle Small Business Blog

Decision-Making is of prime importance for good leadership. Generally it is thought that a good leader makes all the decisions and they have to be the best.

In this modern age, it is impossible for one person to make all the decisions and for all the decisions to be the best. There are too many unseen variables and too many people involved in implementation for a leader to make all the decisions and for them to be the best ones.

However, understanding the types of decisions and the people involved in making them can help the leader to manage the complexity of decision making. The factor that makes decision-making easier and the types of decisions are given below.

Decisions are Data-Based

A good leader makes decisions based on data, which is analyzed for patterns of information. The information is then used to make decisions that are well thought out.

While it is true that you cannot know everything, doing an analysis of available data about a predicament will, nevertheless, lessen the risk of failure.

While all decisions need to be data-based, there are at least four different types of decisions:

1. Paradigm Decisions

Paradigm decisions are those which provide guidelines for decision-making for all people in an organization or team. Decisions such as: Having a smoke-free organization, having a non-discrimination policy, etc. are paradigm decisions. They help team members and leaders to make the right decisions when they are faced with a dilemma.

Such decisions need to be made with the involvement of everyone affected. The consensus process is a very useful methodology to make such decisions.

2. Policy Decisions

Policy decisions are necessary to provide resources and official permission for the operations of an organization.

For instance, if the Performance Appraisal Process needs to be reviewed, then a couple of policy decisions need to be made. A decision needs to be made to set-up a committee which will analyze the existing process. The different teams in an organization need to volunteer a representative to become members of the committee.

The management team needs to allocate money and time for this team to function and come up with an insightful report.

All decisions that are made to ease the functioning of the teams are policy decisions.

Policy decisions are made in a participatory mode with the involvement of everybody who will be involved in the execution of the task.

3. Procedural or Functional Decisions

Procedural decisions are made by a few people who will be carrying out the plans/policies/goals of the organization or who will be impacted by the decision. These are decisions that will help implement a process.

For instance, outlining the procedure of recruitment and selection in an organization is a process of detailing the actions that a team will take when they follow this procedure. It will also detail the actions to be taken if there are exceptions.

4. Structured Decisions

Structured decisions are made by individuals who are directly executing the plans of the organization. These decisions are informed by the data available to the employee, the procedures/structures that have already been put in place, and the knowledge of the policies and paradigms of the organization. The decision-maker could be the CEO or the security guard at the gate.

Understanding the kinds of decisions – and the people who need to be involved in making them – provides the leader with the confidence to make decisions; sometimes alone and sometimes with others.

This will also give the leader confidence in the decisions of his team members, as they are made with an understanding of the values and procedures of the organization.

For many people, working from home in an online “virtual office” can be a tedious chore with many jobs being very technically challenging.

If some jobs are out of your comfort zone why struggle trying to accomplish them when you can outsource the work and better spend your time working on the things which you are most competent at doing. You will also enjoy your work much more.

If your talent is for writing but building websites is an utter mystery find someone to build the sites and you can supply them with the content for the sites or at least source and rewrite plr articles to make them your own. Similarly you can find people to promote and market your web site and probably far more effectively than you ever could yourself.

Cost can be off putting but then how many hours can you waste trying and often failing to get your site up and running correctly. Especially when you want all the extras like videos and pop ups and all the rest. Probably your time is much better spent on producing good quality content and ideas.

The cost does not have to be great though. An advert in your local paper will very likely uncover a teenage genius who is a whiz on computers. They will probably be happy to jump at the chance to earn more than they earn working at the local fast food store. The advantage of using somebody local is that you have easy access to them and the chance of good face to face communication.

There are of course all the online resources with contractors from all over the world looking for work in every aspect of online business. The prices can vary hugely and English may not be their first language but you can generally question their competence and ability to understand English well enough for you to communicate with them. Try to get some testimonials from previous employers and if you do employ them be sure to watch the progress of your project to see that your instructions are adhered to.

A quick Google search should uncover a number of outsourcing companies with very reasonable rates.

Well if nothing else it is an idea worth exploring because so many people get bogged down in all the technology that they do not achieve anything. This is just part of getting yourself organized. Being organized is essential for getting action.

Are you frustrated with your office space? Do you hunt for a pen every time you put one down? Is the search for documents a half-day event? Is your paper filed chronologically – working your way down the pile to “one week ago” and unable to pull out “four months ago” for fear of a paper flood catastrophe?

Every office deals with an excess of paper and whether large or small, your business is suffering when you aren’t operating in an organized space.

So, how do you clear the clutter and gain control?

SPACE IS ESSENTIAL

The biggest problem with staying organized in an office is that people set up a system and don’t give themselves enough room to grow.

If you have spent the better part of a day cleaning out a drawer and replacing the items in organized, labeled files, but you can’t squeeze a single extra sheet of paper you’ve wasted your time and the unfiled papers will grow again.

Be certain to have at least a quarter to a third (more if possible) of growing room when implementing a system. You may need to change over at some point, but having some extra space will encourage you to keep up with the organizing.

This also goes for items such as architectural drawings or other products or documents you may accumulate.

Set aside time to purge unnecessary documents. Not only will this provide more space but will save you time that would otherwise be wasted looking through worthless paperwork.

SIMPLE FILING SYSTEM

Do not make your system too complicated or it will be hard to follow through. Color coding can be the easiest if you do not have too many categories. This is effective for systems which only require “Income,” “Expense,” “Projects,” “Correspondence” or something similar.

For filing of large groups of clients, projects or invoices, use a single drawer for each group of related files. A tall filing cabinet can even be divided into alphabetical or chronological systems.

For items you refer to daily or even hourly you might consider a posting board near your desk. This is a great idea for phone number lists, to do lists and appointment calendars.

MAINTENANCE

A filing system is only as good as the upkeep. You may find it easier to have a small system of files located on or near your desk and daily or weekly transfer the items into their permanent home.

This also works for items which you need close at hand such as current project information or price lists etc.

STYLE OF FILING

Consider if you can realistically maintain a filing system. Perhaps labeled boxes would suit you better (especially if you tend to pile papers). The key is to find something you will feel comfortable maintaining. If papers are sorted and occasionally purged, your system will work.

EVERYTHING NEEDS A HOME

Everything MUST be assigned a home. By giving each item a place you will not lose pens, cell phones, glasses and so on. Don’t crowd the items or you will get frustrated. Recognize that all of your efforts will help you run your business more efficiently, and thus productively. Reward yourself for keeping the system working!