The Sisyphus Comments

Pushing Down Decision Making

Some new supervisors think that they must make all of the important decisions because, after all, isn’t that what the boss is supposed to do? Well, sort of . . . but experienced supervisors will tell you that it is also very important to push decisions down into the organization. Most of the time, your people know what the right answer is, but they may not have the confidence to make the call, particularly when they’re junior-level. In other words they have the competence to decide the correct course of action but they lack the confidence to implement their decision. Senior managers should strive to create an atmosphere where their employee feel they can make decisions and those decisions will be supported. Pushing decision making lower in the organization helps to build a more powerful organization now and stronger leaders in the future.