IT Leadership: Why Managers Must Make the Final Decision

You are not only the manager of your group, you’re also its leader, primary advocate, mood setter, chief bottle washer and of course its chief decision maker. That said, feel free to get input from your staff and/or other knowledgeable parties, but at the end of the day, the decision is yours and yours alone. In fact, if you try to be too nice and leave every decision to a department vote, you will be viewed as indecisive, weak, ineffective and an obstacle to getting things done. On a lighter note, the good news is that you get to call your department’s shots. Cool! Now that you know you’re the one on the hook to be decisive, consider the following when making decisions. • Be fair to your staff members and don’t pick favorites. • If appropriate, get input from your staff. It will give them a feeling of inclusion and make them feel more comfortable with the decisions you make. • Be respectful of your staff members’ feelings, professional aspirations, abilities, limitations and general attitude. • It’s OK to leave fun decisions, such as the location of the holiday party, to team consensus. • Make sure to do your due diligence on important decisions and document your findings. You’ll make better decisions. It will add to your personal credibility, and it will help protect you if the wrong decision was made. • Only make decisions that are yours to make. • Making decisions that should only be made by your boss can get you in trouble. • Making decisions that should be made by your staff members usurps their authority, hurts team morale and reduces their ability to grow professionally. In addition to all of the above, don’t make a decision based on how it makes you feel. It’s your job and obligation to make decisions based on what is best for your company, even if it’s not always in your personal best interest. If you follow this advice, you may find that sometimes it takes real courage to do the right thing. This attitude is best summed up in the expression “business is business,” and it’s true. I once had to lay off a good friend; he understood it, but I hated it. Conversely, a friend of mine had to lay me off. Even though I agreed with her decision, she hated to do it. In both of these cases, the right decision was made. A new manager once told me that he hated to make decisions because he was afraid of being wrong. I told him two things. First, not making a decision is a decision. It is a decision not to act. Second, if a decision needs to be made and you don’t make it, someone else will. If that someone is a member of your staff, then sooner or later they may have your job and you will be looking for a new one. The primary advice and takeaways are to know that: • Only make decisions that are yours to make • When making difficult decisions, do the appropriate due diligence and document your decision process • If a decision needs to be made, make it, or someone else will