Decision making structure
Decision making structure
Does your team use a consensus or autocratic decision-making structure?
In my experience, there are 2 decision-making styles. Your team might adopt one of them: Consensus or autocratic.
Consensus decision-making is when multiple people must agree. You make a decision based on what the majority of the group agrees. This type of decision-making is ineffective simply because you need to “convince” the majority of the group. It usually involves long meetings.
Consensus decision-making makes the group feel like “we make the decision together.” While this might appear empowering, it is bad because no one is accountable for the decision. This means no one thinks hard about the consequences.
Autocratic decision-making is the opposite of consensus. One person is in charge, and this person must make the final call. It’s a hard job. If the team has a competent individual who can lead the initiative, it’s better to take this approach as long as this person has good critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Ideally, this person will think hard about the decision. Decisive enough. The question is: Does that person exist on your team? Usually, it’s really hard to have this high-quality operator on the team to make the call. So, most of the team fell back to the consensus decision-making.
Prompt: Try to observe your team. Do you think they adopt the consensus or autocratic decision-making structure? What do you observe? What are the benefits or downsides?
While you can’t change the fundamental structure, observing and learning from it is useful. This can shape your leadership style one day. Take what you like and dislike from both. You don’t have to be extreme; you can take a hybrid approach when necessary.
Personal note: Hi friends, it’s Budi. I’ve been recovering lately. But I’m getting better. This article is short because I want to warm up and gain momentum. Thanks for reading this one. You can send me questions by replying to this email.
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