One of the execution skills in the Executive Skills/Traits model involves being decisive (12-30-09 Morphing to a Model and 1-13-10 Execution Skills -- Now go DO something!).
One of my survey participants had an interesting take on this skill. He said, “Many/most times decisions are elevated due to lack of a clear cut ‘answer‘. Being able to listen to opposing arguments and make a decision is critical to exec leadership. If it was easy, the team would have already decided.”
If you haven’t figured it out yet, being an executive ain’t easy.
As an executive, you no longer get to make the easy decisions -- if you’ve delegated appropriately. The easy decisions are made by your staff or your managers. That means you get stuck with the hard decisions.
And as my survey participant indicated, in order to make those hard decisions you have to weigh the information and the opposing arguments. Fairly and impartially. The “fair” part is easy for most executives. The “impartial” part usually isn’t.
Why? Because we all have a past or history. And that can impact our analysis and decision-making. In order to be a successful executive, you have to recognize your past and your biases -- then to the extent possible, leave them behind. And if you can’t, you at least need to factor them in to your decision-making process.
Of course, once the decision is made, then it has to be implemented. But that’s another post……
Cheers!
Showing posts with label Delegation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Delegation. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Participant Observations (or the inside skinny)
If you have been reading along with me, by now you know why I did the research, background for the research, what the research was, and some preliminary results. Today, I’ll take a look at some general observations made by the participants.
The participant observations came as I was analyzing the data by demographic category. For example, within the execution function, the only intersection of agreement between males and females was the ability to be decisive. As related by one executive, “many/most times decisions are elevated due to lack of a clear-cut ‘answer’. Being able to listen to opposing arguments and make a decisions is critical to executive leadership. If it was easy, the team would have already decided”. But I also learned that as important as being decisive is also to have the skill to delegate not only a task but also the decisions related to the task. So the “skill” isn’t a narrow focus on decision-making. It is expanded to acknowledge the need for the executive to understand when he/she should step up and make the decision as well as know when to delegate the decision to other levels.
When I analyzed the results based on the level of the executive respondent, I discovered that within the vision function, there is clear agreement that as a person moves into the executive ranks, he/she should must also move from the day-to-day (or tactical) management to a longer-term or strategic view. One executive told me, “in my first executive assignment, I focused on solving day-to-day problems and the organization I led did not have a clear, well-communicated strategy. This limited the effectiveness of the organization and sent the wrong signals about what was necessary for long-term success”. Clearly, it is important for the new or aspiring executive to figure out how to make the transition to strategic management.
Within the functional organization demographic, I found agreement that the new executive must have, and use, the skills of empowerment and teaching/mentoring. The responses relative to this went from the purely practical (if you don’t empower, you end up doing the day-to-day stuff), to the more esoteric idea of ownership and buy-in. One executive summed this up very well, “if you are the smartest (or busiest) person in the organization, you probably need to make some changes”. Wise advice, indeed.
One theme I heard, over and over, in the structured and in the open-ended questions was relative to the communication function. These executives could not stress enough the need to have the skill for establishing interpersonal relationships, which they tended to use interchangeably with the skill for development personal networks. In addition, they approached this need via varying avenues. For example, one executive discussed the need to create a sound network within his/her peer group -- “I wish I had been more incisive about the fragile egos and personalities of existing executives”. Solid peer-to-peer relationships would have allowed him/her to ask questions or challenge ideas without creating defensiveness. Another application of the networking skill concerns getting work done through the “right channel” within the organization -- or more specifically, getting the right support to get an idea moved forward. “At the executive level, decisions often get made based upon trust and relationships. There aren’t always policies, procedures, or protocols in place to drive decisions that need to be made. They’re based upon a mutual trusting relationship.” Clearly there is a need for the new and aspiring executive to carefully (and honestly) build his/her network of relationships. This idea of building your network is clearly a critical factor for the success of an executive.
Next time? How the conceptual model morphed from a concept to a final model for executive skills and traits.
Cheers!
The participant observations came as I was analyzing the data by demographic category. For example, within the execution function, the only intersection of agreement between males and females was the ability to be decisive. As related by one executive, “many/most times decisions are elevated due to lack of a clear-cut ‘answer’. Being able to listen to opposing arguments and make a decisions is critical to executive leadership. If it was easy, the team would have already decided”. But I also learned that as important as being decisive is also to have the skill to delegate not only a task but also the decisions related to the task. So the “skill” isn’t a narrow focus on decision-making. It is expanded to acknowledge the need for the executive to understand when he/she should step up and make the decision as well as know when to delegate the decision to other levels.
When I analyzed the results based on the level of the executive respondent, I discovered that within the vision function, there is clear agreement that as a person moves into the executive ranks, he/she should must also move from the day-to-day (or tactical) management to a longer-term or strategic view. One executive told me, “in my first executive assignment, I focused on solving day-to-day problems and the organization I led did not have a clear, well-communicated strategy. This limited the effectiveness of the organization and sent the wrong signals about what was necessary for long-term success”. Clearly, it is important for the new or aspiring executive to figure out how to make the transition to strategic management.
Within the functional organization demographic, I found agreement that the new executive must have, and use, the skills of empowerment and teaching/mentoring. The responses relative to this went from the purely practical (if you don’t empower, you end up doing the day-to-day stuff), to the more esoteric idea of ownership and buy-in. One executive summed this up very well, “if you are the smartest (or busiest) person in the organization, you probably need to make some changes”. Wise advice, indeed.
One theme I heard, over and over, in the structured and in the open-ended questions was relative to the communication function. These executives could not stress enough the need to have the skill for establishing interpersonal relationships, which they tended to use interchangeably with the skill for development personal networks. In addition, they approached this need via varying avenues. For example, one executive discussed the need to create a sound network within his/her peer group -- “I wish I had been more incisive about the fragile egos and personalities of existing executives”. Solid peer-to-peer relationships would have allowed him/her to ask questions or challenge ideas without creating defensiveness. Another application of the networking skill concerns getting work done through the “right channel” within the organization -- or more specifically, getting the right support to get an idea moved forward. “At the executive level, decisions often get made based upon trust and relationships. There aren’t always policies, procedures, or protocols in place to drive decisions that need to be made. They’re based upon a mutual trusting relationship.” Clearly there is a need for the new and aspiring executive to carefully (and honestly) build his/her network of relationships. This idea of building your network is clearly a critical factor for the success of an executive.
Next time? How the conceptual model morphed from a concept to a final model for executive skills and traits.
Cheers!
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