The Importance Of Decision-Making
Leaders are primarily known by the decisions they make. These decisions may be about vision, strategy, personnel, timing, risk, communications, financial issues, and most importantly, character items. But make no mistake, leaders will be generally defined by their decisions. Just ask anyone who has ever made a bad one.
In the June 29th edition of Morning Brew, it was reported Ernst and Young, the world renowned auditing firm, faced their own set of ethics issues. The firm agreed to pay a $100 million fine to the Securities And Exchange Commission because hundreds of their accountants reportedly cheated on the ethics portions of their CPA exams from 2017 to 2021. To make matters worse, hundreds more also reportedly cheated on their ongoing certification exams. Finally, after an internal investigation uncovered the indiscretions, the firm did not disclose their findings to SEC for nine months.
In short, the auditors needed auditing.
There is a lesson here for all leaders in regard to decision-making.
Smart leaders gather information before making decisions. They keep their ear to the ground and do extensive research before coming to conclusions and acting upon them. Smart leaders are not impulsive.
However, many leaders make a critical mistake in this information-gathering process. They listen to the wrong voices. Maybe it is because or personal relationships or they know they will like what they will hear. But in any case, their intel is faulty and counter-productive. Bad information leads to bad decisions.
Proverbs 13:20 is right when it says, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” (ESV)
The first mistake leaders often make in decision-making is a failure to evaluate the evaluators.
I was recently speaking with a CEO who had a very successful person on the team. This person easily outpaced her co-workers in terms of production, revenue generation, and customer satisfaction. Yet, the primary influencers and crafters of the team’s initiatives were the team’s low-performers.
The low-performers had high input. The high-performer had low input. This is a serious inability to evaluate the evaluators. And like Proverbs 13:20 said, the entire organization suffered.
It is wise and highly-appropriate for leaders to gather information before making important decisions. But they must consider the source of their information. Evaluate the evaluators. Sometimes the auditors need to be audited themselves.
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