Whether you lead your own firm or someone else’s, you’re required to make the right decisions, and then to make them right. Here’s our brief take on what it takes.

 

What are the right decisions?

 

Unless you're a solopreneur, you can't (and you shouldn't ) make all decisions yourself. Success requires that you recognize and accommodate the following:

 

• The notion of the well-rounded executive is a myth. You need to complement your personal strengths with people who have those that you don't.

 

• If you have people around who are better qualified than you are in specific areas — which you ought to — their potential contribution will only be realized if you empower them to do what you are paying them to do. That includes their decision-making authority. So if you are not, it's either because you are personally uncomfortable, insecure or they are not personally competent. Any of these conditions will accrue to your detriment or demise at some point.

 

Four of your priorities have to be:

 

• understanding the full complement of strengths required for your organization to be successful,

 

• hiring for those strengths without compromising or rationalizing,

 

• configuring those strengths so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and

 

• yielding to the expertise of others when appropriate.

 

What does it mean to make decisions right?

 

Making decisions right means that your decisions must answer some basic questions:

 

• What are the "conditions of satisfaction" that the decision has to meet? What are the minimum goals that the decision must satisfy? What is the absolute minimum required to solve the problem or deal effectively with the issue at hand?

 

• What is the absolute right answer? You'll never solve a problem or deal with an issue perfectly, but you have to start somewhere. If you know you're going to have to compromise, you are better off starting from the optimum point and making your compromises from there.

 

• You are called an executive for a reason. Do your decisions culminate in the development of clear road maps for execution?

 

• Do you develop feedback systems to help ensure that, on a regular basis, decisions get tested against actual events? You must, periodically and regularly, assure that decisions you made are still sound and that the events or conditions that ensue do not make your decisions obsolete prematurely. You have to be able to adjust along the way.

 

A few conditions can get you into trouble when making decisions if their importance is neglected:

 

• All decisions create unintended consequences. You might solve one problem and create three more. It's far better to anticipate and develop a contingency plan than to get surprised because you didn't confront "somewhat foreseeable" events and outcomes, in advance.

 

• "Cause and effect" are almost always remote. When you make a decision today that will be implemented beginning tomorrow, extending through 12/31/06, when will the intended outcome(s) occur? If, for example, you decide to increase prices, when (and how) will the incremental impact of that hit your income statement?

 

• You make decisions to fill the gap between "what is" and "what you want." Something, presumably, will be different after the decision is implemented. Your decisions should, as a first recourse, exploit strength. Only strength produces results. Weakness produces nothing but headaches. You can't eliminate all personal and organizational weaknesses, but you can "starve" them.

 

Last but not least, a few additional considerations:

 

• Easy decisions don't exist. If the answer is obvious in advance, either a deeper inquiry is necessary or a decision isn't required in the first place.

 

• People who must execute the decision must have their hearts in it. This is a real sticking point — one with which both large corporate executives and business owners have a hard time. If the people who must execute don’t understand (context as well as content) or don’t support your decisions, you won’t get vigor; without vigor, you’re cooked.

 

Here at Value Connection, we specialize in helping business chiefs make effective decisions using a process we call The Brutal Truth. Call or e-mail us to inquire about our Anchor Program, a continuous development program to support the business and personal success of entrepreneurs and business owners. Click here to learn more.

 Four Steps to Greater Accountability by Mark Akerley

Being accountable is more than just getting things done. It's about achieving what's most important for you, even if outside forces undermine your dreams and goals. See if you've heard (or uttered) these before:

 

• "Our business partner didn't complete his part of the assignment."

• "The vendor didn't ship the part on time."

• "The service guy only completed half of the service."

• "One of our employees keeps coming in late."

• "This economy just won't turn around so we can sell more product."

 

I bet you can add a few more personal examples to this list of conspiracies, but here's the brutal truth: Excuses never produce results!

 

So why do some people seem to achieve their dreams and goals, in spite of significant obstacles, while others don't? The answer has little to do with intellect, skills or environment. It has everything to do with accountability — being 100% responsible for your actions and results. It simply means you personally assuming that if you're not getting what you want or you're not achieving your dreams and goals, it's because of you — you not doing something or you not doing the right thing. The key to achieving your goals and dreams is to become more accountable. Here are four steps that can help you do so:

 

1. Accept reality. Don't spend time and energy complaining about something over which you have absolutely no control. Some things you just cannot change. Wishing it weren't so is a time waster. It actually impedes your creativity in finding ways to work around or with the current reality. Always accept reality for what it is, not what you would like it to be. That'’ll enable you to move forward rather than getting stalled in the past.

 

2. Take ownership. Can someone else really solve your problems or achieve your dreams and goals for you? Of course not. When things go wrong or don't work out as planned, don't blame others. Take responsibility for the current condition. Doing so allows you to focus on the condition, not the circumstances, and enables you to get to the right solution for the right reason.

 

3. Find solutions. You can create all kinds of reasons that something can't be done. So what; nothing is perfect. It's pretty easy to criticize or find fault with anything. In reality, it's just about as easy and definitely more productive to create solutions. You may not create the best solutions right away; but by consciously staying in a "problem solving" mode rather than a "why me?" mode, you will come up with many alternatives. In short order, you will come up with the right solution.

 

4. Take action. Rationalizing a problem, waiting for things to change or hoping things will get better won't solve any problem. If you want different results or if you want a change, someone, somewhere, somehow has to do something differently. That will only happen by taking action.

 

100% accountability is tough. It takes energy and courage to do things that make us uncomfortable, even if we know they have to be done. The brutal truth is that not accepting reality, not taking ownership, not finding solutions and not taking action make you a victim of your circumstances, subject to the outcomes of other people's actions. Don't leave the fulfillment of your dreams and goals to others. Become accountable by following the four steps.