As my company grew, I’d periodically be accused of making decisions slowly. I couldn’t figure out why, until one day it dawned on me: While employees thought they were asking me to weigh in on a choice that had to be made, I thought they were making small talk at the coffee machine. It wasn’t always clear that I’d been asked to decide anything. I simply figured I’d been listening to colorful commentary about issues that team members were working to resolve.
When a business is growing fast, decisions can get lost in the fray — especially if it’s unclear that a decision even needs to be made. The result, for our company, was that initiatives would stall without my input.
That got me thinking about the most effective ways for people to present their ideas and get the responses they need to either take action or go back to the drawing board. Clarity about how to communicate and what strategies to employ gives people a better chance of getting approval for their recommendations.