by Mike Myatt You cannot separate leadership from decisioning, for like it or not, they are inexorably linked. Put simply, the outcome of a CEO’s decisions can, and usually will, make or break them. Those CEOs who avoid making decisions solely for fear of making a bad decision, or conversely those that make decisions just for the sake of making a decision will likely not last long. The fact of the matter is that senior executives who rise to the C-suite do so largely based upon their ability to consistently make sound decisions. However while it may take years of solid decision making to reach the boardroom, it often times only takes one bad decision to fall from the ivory tower. As much as you may wish it wasn’t so, as a CEO you’re really only as good as your last decision. “CEO Decisioning” is a skill set that needs to be developed like any other. As a person that works with leaders on a daily basis I can tell you with great certainty that all CEOs are not created equal when it comes to the competency of their decisioning skills. Nothing will test your metal as CEO more than your ability to make decisions. I happen to be the type of person that would rather make the decision than have to live with someone else’s decisions. In fact, I absolutely love to make decisions, and whether it is in my role in the business world, or my role as a husband and father, I want to be the one making the tough calls. That being said, nobody is immune to bad decisioning. We have all made bad decisions whether we like to admit it or not. Show me someone who hasn’t made a bad decision and I’ll show you someone who is either not being honest, or someone who avoids decisioning at all costs, which by the way, constitutes a bad decision. For more than 25 years I have either served in the capacity of a principal owner, senior executive, or professional advisor, and have generally been well regarded for my decision making ability. However like everyone else, I have also made some regrettable decisions along the way. When I reflect back upon the poor decisions I’ve made, it’s not that I wasn’t capable of making the correct decision, but for whatever reason I failed to use sound decisioning methodology. Gut instincts can only take you so far in life, and anyone who operates outside of a sound decisioning framework will eventually fall prey to an act of oversight, misinformation, misunderstanding, manipulation, impulsivity or some other negative influencing factor. The complexity of the current business landscape, combined with ever increasing expectations of performance, and the speed at which decisions must be made, are a potential recipe for disaster for today’s executive unless a defined methodology for decisioning is put into place. If you incorporate the following metrics into your decisioning framework you will minimize the chances of making a bad decision: Perform a Situation Analysis: What is motivating the need for a decision? What would happen if no decision is made? Who will the decision impact (both directly and indirectly)? What data, analytics, research, or supporting information do you have to validate the inclinations driving your decision? Subject your Decision to Public Scrutiny: There are no private decisions. Sooner or later the details surrounding any decision will likely come out. If your decision were printed on the front page of the newspaper how would you feel? What would your family think of your decision? How would your shareholders and employees feel about your decision? Have you sought counsel and/or feedback before making your decision? Conduct a Cost/Benefit Analysis: Do the potential benefits derived from the decision justify the expected costs? What if the costs exceed projections, and the benefits fall short of projections? Assess the Risk/Reward Ratio: What are all the possible rewards, and when contrasted with all the potential risks are the odds in your favor, or are they stacked against you? Assess Whether it is the Right Thing To Do: Standing behind decisions that everyone supports doesn’t particularly require a lot of chutzpah. On the other hand, standing behind what one believes is the right decision in the face of tremendous controversy is the stuff great leaders are made of. My wife has always told me that “you can’t go wrong by going right,” and as usual I find her advice to be spot on. Never compromise you value system, your character, or your integrity. Make The Decision: Perhaps most importantly you must have a bias toward action, and be willing to make the decision. Moreover as a CEO you must learn to make the best decision possible even if you possess an incomplete data set. Don’t fall prey to analysis paralysis, but rather make the best decision possible with the information at hand using some of the methods mentioned above. Opportunities and not static, and the law of diminishing returns applies to most opportunities in that the longer you wait to seize the opportunity the smaller the return typically is. In fact, more likely is the case that the opportunity will completely evaporate if you wait too long to seize it. If you develop the appropriate blend of a bias to action with an analytical approach to decisioning your stock as CEO will surely rise. Good luck and good decisioning… Don’t miss an article – Subscribe to our RSS feed and join our Continuous Innovation group! Mike Myatt, is a Top CEO Coach, author of ” Leadership Matters…The CEO Survival Manual “, and Managing Director of N2Growth .

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Six Steps of CEO Decisioning

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One key partner that has the potential to greatly affect and enhance the human condition is government. This author prefers the open market as the main catalyst for change, but given the complexity and scale of certain types of research, government can play a vital role in advancing knowledge in science and technology by supporting basic research. While some governments have been funding research for quite some time, the inefficiency of the process may be keeping new discoveries from being commercialized.

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Government’s promising role in fostering open innovation

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Japanese auto major Honda has decided to recall 8,532 “City” sedans manufactured in 2007 from the Indian market for preventive part replacement of power window switches that have the potential to catch fire.

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Honda to recall over 8,500 old City sedans in India

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With an aim to cash in on the potential in the health insurance space, private life insurer plans to enter the segment while continuing to focus on term insurance products.

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Aegon Religare to foray into health insurance

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An ECG device that has the potential to reduce the cost of an ECG to less than that of a bottle of mineral water, a laptop ultrasound and a lullaby warmer for infants.

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India is key focus of GE’s low-cost healthcare products

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Indian policy-makers are not really worried over the potential adverse impact on the country’s economy because of the multi-billion-dollar debt default risk faced by Dubai World, ranked among the largest conglomerates in the region.

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Indian policy-makers see little impact of Dubai World woes

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GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric company, launched its latest ‘In India, For India’ innovation – MAC i. The ECG product has the potential to reduce the ECG cost for a patient to as low as Rs.9, according to the company.

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Now, ECG comes at Rs. 9, thanks to GE Healthcare

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Japan based NTT Group has entered the race to acquire majority stake in Patni Computer Systems. Other potential suitors include L&T Infotech and Japan’s Fujitsu.

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NTT enters the race for a byte in Patni

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A few weeks ago I received ” Innovate with Influence – tales of a high-tech intrapreneur ” by Steve Todd in the mail. “Innovate with Influence” is a short (134 pages), easy, and pleasant read – almost like sitting down with Steve over a cup of coffee. Given that most innovation books are written by innovation consultants, it is rare to get a a first-person account from the innovation trenches, direct from an actual intrapreneur. As an intrapreneur, Steve (and the book) don’t concern themselves with a lot of theory, but instead on how you go about getting innovation done. And if you harbor the illusion that you have to burn the midnight oil to innovate, Steve has generated over 140 patent applications and billions of dollars in revenue for EMC from the solutions he has worked on, and still managed to leave at 5 o’clock along the way. The book gives a first-person account of Steve’s career, the projects he has worked on, and his approach to innovation. His keys to success? Getting things done early Building and leveraging influence Actively managing his career Actively managing his visibility Managing work-life balance to maximize creativity Combining expertise, customers, and adjacencies to create innovation Doing the important things first So, if you’d like to get a different perspective on innovation, and see what it looks like through the eyes of an innovator, I highly encourage you to check out ” Innovate with Influence “. I’ll leave you with one final concept from the book that speaks to the potential innovation that corporations leave on the table every day

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Book Review and Innovation Summary – "Innovate with Influence"

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I’ve been in Miami for the past few days, checking out the IDSA conference and, last night, handing out the gold gongs in the International Design Excellence Awards . I also had to give the official BusinessWeek speech to the attendees, which I’ve posted here. BusinessWeek has covered the International Design Excellence Awards since 1990. The relationship of design and business has evolved radically since then, becoming ever more intricately intertwined

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Design leaders yuck it up in Miami

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