It is only when you are working on those tasks that are most important to your boss that you can possibly have any chance of satisfying or pleasing him, or being paid more or promoted more often. If you make the mistake of doing things on your list in an excellent fashion but you work on tasks that are not important to your boss, you will actually sabotage your career. The more time you spend doing an excellent job on unimportant tasks, the further behind you will fall.
Three Types of Decisions
There are three types of decisions in any organization, or family. When decisions involve other people, it is important that everyone is clear about what kind of a decision is under consideration.
1. Command Decisions
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The first types of decisions are command decisions. This is a decision that has to be made by the boss, or by the person in charge. This decision is so important that one person is solely responsible for making up his or her mind about what is to be done.
Hiring a key staff member, firing a poor performer, making an important investment decision, finalizing a sale or transaction, or even negotiating a new loan with the bank are all command decisions. They must be made by the person in charge.
2. Consultative Decisions
The second type is a consultative decision. This is a decision where you or the boss asks for advice and takes input from other people. You combine the opinions, ideas and inputs of others together with your own and make a decision. A consultative decision, even though it invites the advice and participation of others, is not made based on that advice.
You may be thinking of hiring a new person, assigning someone to a particular task, spending a certain amount of money on a business activity or embarking on a new sales or marketing campaign. If you are the boss, you can ask for advice from everyone before you finally close the door and make your final decision.
When General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the supreme commander of allied forces in Britain, he took the advice and input of hundreds of military experts, planners and specialists in his preparation for the D-Day invasion.
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This process took several months. But on the final day, June 5, 1944, with a single day of calm weather predicted for the English Channel, General Eisenhower made the fateful decision that launched the invasion of June 6, 1944 and brought World War II to an end ten months later.
3. Consensus Decisions
The third type of decision is one that is made on the basis of consensus. This is a democratic decision where everyone gets involved, discusses the pros and cons, and then agrees on what is to be done. Sometimes everyone is in agreement and sometimes the decision is made by a democratic vote, where the majority rules. Once the decision has been made, everyone commits to making the decision successful; however they may have felt or voted during the discussion phase.
Clarify the Type of Decision
One of the problems in communications, and working with others, is confusion over which kind of a decision is being made at that moment.
Sometimes, the boss asks for input and ideas. The staff members automatically conclude that this is a consensus decision while the boss may be viewing it as a consultative decision. When the boss makes a decision that is contrary to the expressed wishes or opinions of the others, it can lead to hard feelings and misunderstandings.
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People’s feelings will be hurt and time will be wasted going back and explaining that their input was invited and welcome, but not necessarily followed in the final decision.
When a boss makes it clear that this is a democratic or consensus decision, he is saying that the staff can decide what is to be done in this case, and whatever the group decides, we will all go along with it. When everyone is clear about the kind of decision under consideration, everything proceeds more smoothly, with less friction and time wastage.
Your Job Description
Often in my seminars, to make a point, I will say, “I know the job description of every single person in this audience.” This immediately gets their attention. In an audience of 1000 people, there will be participants from hundreds of companies. They then smile and wait to hear what I am about to say.
“You can take your business card and cross out whatever title is below your name and replace it with the words Problem Solver. Everyone here is a problem solver. This is what you do all day long.”
Focus on the Solution
One of the characteristics of top people is that they are intensely solution-oriented. They do not continually think and talk about the problem, and who 289
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is to blame, and how much has been lost, and why did this happen to me?
Instead, they focus on the solution, and what can be done.
Your job, in whatever position, is to solve problems. Your income, your rate of promotion, the respect and esteem of your peers, and all of your success in life will be determined by how effectively you solve the problems and difficulties that you have to face every hour of every day in the achievement of your goals.
Leadership is the ability to solve problems. Success is the ability to solve problems. Personal effectiveness is the ability to solve the inevitable and unavoidable problems of daily life. The only question is, “How good are you at solving problems?”
Here is a wonderful discovery. The more you think and talk about possible solutions, the smarter you get. The more you think and talk about what can be done to solve the problem, the more ideas you will have. You will become more creative. Your mind will function faster. The more solutions that you come up with, the more solutions there are that will occur to you.
Eventually you will become like the Pac Man of the video game, gobbling up problems as fast as you encounter them.
One of the biggest time savers in life and work is your ability to solve the right problem in the right way. It is your ability to deal effectively and efficiently with problems, to overcome them, and to keep moving forward toward the result or goal that you desire.
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On the other hand, one of the biggest time wasters in life and work is the inability to solve problems. The inability to solve a single key problem can lead to underachievement, frustration, failure and even the bankruptcy of an organization. Thinking and talking in terms of problem solving and solutions is one of the most important mindsets that you can develop.
Six Steps to Effective Problem Solving
There are six steps to effective problem solving that you can follow to cut through any difficulty or obstacle you face for the rest of your career.
1. Define the Problem Clearly
Start by asking, “What exactly is the problem?” Define the problem clearly, and whenever possible, in writing. Remember, accurate diagnosis is half the cure. Sometimes writing a problem down on a flip chart or white board, and having everybody agree to the definition of the problem will lead rapidly to a solution.
Very often, by forcing yourself to define the problem clearly in writing on a piece of paper in front of you will trigger a logical solution. Fully 50% of problems can be solved in the definition phase.
What Else is the Problem?
Once you have a clear definition of the problem, you should ask, “What else is the problem?” Never be satisfied with a problem that has only one 291
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definition. Keep asking, “What else is the problem?” See if you cannot develop multiple definitions to a single problem.
Sometimes a large problem is actually a “cluster problem.” This occurs when the larger problem is actually made up of several smaller problems. By defining the problem clearly, this enables you to break down the problem into its constituent parts so that you can solve each of the smaller parts at once.
The rule is that, in every complex problem, there is usually a single problem that must be solved before any other problems can be solved. This single, large problem that must be solved is often not clear or obvious. It requires a little digging on your part to find it.
The natural tendency of human nature is to jump to conclusions. We see a problem and we leap to a solution. We leap quickly from the problem to the solution without considering that we might be jumping from the pan into the fire. In defining the problem or problems, it is important that you go slowly at the beginning to make sure that you are not working on the wrong problem. Solving the wrong problem in the right way will often create a worse situation than the one you started with.