{"id":6167,"date":"2018-06-29T07:49:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T12:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=6167"},"modified":"2018-06-29T07:49:53","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T12:49:53","slug":"4-clear-ways-to-avoid-decision-disasters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/29\/4-clear-ways-to-avoid-decision-disasters\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Clear Ways to Avoid Decision Disasters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you\u2019re not clear who is supposed to be holding the decision key, things will get very fuzzy, very fast.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

That piece of leadership insight from a trusted mentor has helped me navigate some tricky leadership waters for many years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because if you want to avoid a decision disaster, it\u2019s all about knowing who is holding the key.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several years ago our organization had partnered with another organization\u00a0to present a leadership conference.<\/p>\n

The schedule was set to go all day Friday and all day Saturday. But noticing that there was nothing scheduled on Friday evening, a leader from our partner said we should program a concert for that timeslot.<\/p>\n

I disagreed.<\/p>\n

And there we stood; standing at the door, not sure who held the decision key.<\/p>\n

Ultimately I deferred and allowed our partner to program a concert for that evening. It turned out to be a disaster. It was very poorly planned and executed.<\/p>\n

But the real learning happened Monday morning. The disaster had absolutely no lasting impact on our partner. But I was digging myself out of this mess for weeks afterwards.<\/p>\n

Because at the end of the day, the programming for the entire conference, including Friday evening, was my accountability. Not his.<\/p>\n

And because I held the accountability, I held the decision key. But I gave it away, and paid for it dearly.<\/p>\n

In short, here\u2019s what I learned.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Always be clear who holds the decision key<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Whoever is ultimately responsible makes the call.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>You can\u2019t share the key<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As I\u2019ve written before, there are no \u201cteam decisions\u201d<\/a>. One person makes the call, because one person is responsible.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Never give away the key<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Just because someone demands the key is no reason to give it up.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Key-holders should be collaborative, but ultimately stand alone when making the call<\/strong><\/h2>\n

At the end of the day, leadership is all about making decisions. But before you can make the call you need clarity on whose call it is to make.<\/p>\n

So take a lesson from my experience.<\/p>\n

Because when you know you hold the decision key, leadership doors start to open. And you can avoid those decision disasters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you\u2019re not clear who is supposed to be holding the decision key, things will get very fuzzy, very fast.\u201d That piece of leadership insight from a trusted mentor has helped me navigate some tricky leadership waters for many years. Because if you want to avoid a decision disaster, it\u2019s all about knowing who is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1017,5,738,478,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action","category-communication","category-discipline2","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6169,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6167\/revisions\/6169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}