Do you know the final decision maker…
Call it a mission. A Northstar. A guiding principle. The reality is, when you are at a stand still in a meeting what is the final decision maker?
The final decision.
If your first instinct is cost that is not what I am referring to. If you cannot afford it, it should not be on the table.
If your next thought is what drives revenue or share-holder value, also not what I am referring to. What ever you are doing should always be in the best interest of your full organization (product, brand, employees and yes external views).
What I mean is when you are debating the details of a project. The determination of a change management plan. The details of organizational design. The impact of a product launch or implementation of a system. What is the final decision maker… that needs to be your mission, your NorthStar, your guiding principle. That is what every one at the table is willing to let go of their tightly held stance and agree as to what is best.
Having spent many years in the truly mission-oriented space that is Healthcare and being in the thick of a 24/7 hospital operation, you can see just how important a final decision maker is. In that world: what is the safest care for this patient? That was the final line. And then easily connected to it is how can the employee provide the safest care? Which snowballs to how can we provide support for the employee to provide the safest care?
See debates did not exist around that leadership table on why we did something. It was because it inevitably supported the best scenario for the patient which meant having the best support for the employee. Sure we had opinions on how you roll-out experiential leadership training, how you train administration to round patients, what tools to use to collect feedback - but never a question for if you should do this.
Not every business has such a true life or death mentality. Many think they do, but until you hear a code overhead when you are in a meeting and see clinical and non-clinical professional run in suits through halls to stabilize patients and support family; it is never really life or death; its made up urgency. That said, even in other settings having a Northstar as a final decision maker is essential.
With it, you will:
Make better decisions faster
Hire better when you add that into your candidate brand pitch, your knock-out questions and your behavioral interviews
Develop and retain the right talent when their ability to follow the Northstar is part of talent assessment, leadership development and career progression
Deepen brand loyalty by current and former employees because your transparency is easier
All sounds like a win, right? So why do so many executive leadership teams struggle with a Northstar and its consistency being applied all the way to the front line. They cloud their thoughts with financial impacts. Not a bad thing, but that is table stakes before ideas should hit those tables. So, why else can this not occur. Well, many leaders, in my experience particularly more senior and executive leaders, also believe they can do every one else’s job. So instead of letter PR opine on PR, HR on HR and Events on Events; everyone needs to put their hands deeply in the pot. That is where final decisions get blurry because it is no longer about the SME in the room representing facts and impact, but it is about observations, opinions and baggage from past projects being added by those without hands-on experience.
The final attribute I determined I need to do good work is a Northstar. I need to know what the final decision maker is. Are we aiming to win a new customer base? Are we driving engagement and retention for our employees? Are we preparing to be acquired or to acquire? As an SME of Talent and HR Business Partners, I can tell you the 10 different ways you can do almost everything in my space because my space is an art and a science. I need you to tell me the end goal, the final decision maker… then I can get you the best answer for your current scenario.
I am not interested in people telling me about a company’s leadership program launch that botched 10 years ago in a company 10x our size. I do not need to waste energy doing the analytics of what it is to bring in a vendor you heard of when RFPs where never on the table to solve this problem. It is not that these experiences aren’t helpful in some way, but they are not us, in this moment, right now, with the technology we have available in the economy we have. Historical knowledge is great to stakeholder manage before building a project but they do not belong at the decision making table.
I believe that we have the right people in the right jobs. And if we do not, that is a leadership transparency problem to coach or move on. So my peers at the table should have done their homework, should know relevant historical knowledge and I need to trust them on their SME. Which then makes having a final decision making question not only easy but part of your daily mantra.
So, now I know what I need:
Actually like the people I work with and know when they ask me how I am doing they want to know
Feel like I am trusted to do my job and that those around me are coming from a place of good intent
Have an identified Northstar