Q. How does trust help your
business?
There’s a quote, I think it was
[U.S. Army Gen.] George C.
Marshall, the author of the
Marshall Plan, who said the
only way you can make a person trustworthy is to trust them.
You make sure employees
have the tools to make a good
decision. Management’s job is
to set expectations, define the
outcome you are after and delegate the decision-making.
Formally make it part of the
job. When we talk about
assigning decision-making
authority, we call that assigning
the ‘D.’ Who has the decision-making authority?
It’s an explicit thing. People
sit in meetings, they set objectives, they say, ‘Who has the D?’
That person will make the
decision. It does a great job of
involving as many people as
possible in running the business. If we can bring those
folks along as leaders, we’re
way ahead of the game.
If a decision is made that we
disagree with, it becomes a
coaching opportunity. In some
cases, decisions are made that
we disagree with that produce
good results. In that case, we
stand informed, and that’s a
very good thing.
Q. How do you deal with bad
decisions?
We don’t punish people. I’ve
said to my folks, ‘I’ll never be
terribly unhappy with a decision that doesn’t turn out well
if it’s a decision that was
carefully made.’ I’ll be very
unhappy with someone who
doesn’t make a decision
when one is needed.
Be willing to accept some
mistakes and use those as
opportunities for coaching.
People understand they are
held accountable for outcomes. But if they are acting
in good faith in the best interest of the business with the
right facts and due diligence
involved, even if things don’t
turn out as hoped, they aren’t
reluctant to stick their necks
out and make a decision.
Making a decision is always
better, even if it’s the wrong
decision, if you are dealing
with a good decision-making
framework. No one has ever
lost their job at Redemtech
from making a bad decision.
People lose their jobs for not
taking ownership and for not
taking initiative when that’s
required.
Someone that in good faith
makes a decision that does-n’t turn out well is coached
and will have another opportunity to make a decision in
the future that we hope will
turn out better.
HOW TO REACH: Redemtech Inc., (614) 850-3366 or www.redemtech.com
