The mechanics of better decision making

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by Cathy Sedacca

As a small business owner, you have no “boss.”

You started your business and have made all the important decisions without much push back or accountability.

Odds are you’re a good utility player, comfortable takings risks and making decisions, and you like to get things done.

It’s easy to act like a commander-in-chief. “I’m the decider!” you may declare (well, at least to yourself).

On one hand, that’s the kind of freedom we all want as business owners. But on the other hand, it may not always make for the best decisions.

The machine

Karen Turnquist and I often refer to our business as “The machine.”

Like us, every morning, all business owners metaphorically turn on their machines so they can produce widgets or services for their customers or clients.

It’s powered by the people who either work in the machine or manage it.

When we started Sage, Karen and I were the only employees, so we divvied up responsibilities and both worked in the machine while we also managed it.

What we quickly discovered is that when you work in the machine you also manage, it’s easy to get out over your skis.

Knee-deep and head-down in the details of an issue or opportunity, it’s easy to lose the forest for the trees. Among the biggest challenges is balancing customer or client demands for swift decision-making with sound risk-management principals.

It’s not a situation that’s conducive to clear or creative thinking.

At times like this, a second set of eyes and a fresh perspective can help identify all the issues and risks, and to make smarter, more creative decisions.

Managing the machine

But business owners, especially majority shareholders, accustomed to stepping up, are not prone to stepping back to ask for input and forcing themselves through the processes aimed at ensuring solid decision making.

It was this realization that led Karen and me to establish temporary and alternating roles as “the machine” and “the machine manager.”

As the machine, our role requires us to:

• treat the other person as our manager
• throttle back our tendency to just go do something
• report back
• ask for input
• get a fresh perspective

As the machine manager, our role requires us to:

• treat the other person as our employee
• ask good questions
• don’t make assumptions
• offer ideas and give direction
• provide consensus

This process of taking on a role that is either superior or subordinate is very different from the equality that is presumed in a partnership. This is especially true for the machine manager as it requires a higher level responsibility for the outcome of a decision.

But it’s a model that we can confidently say has benefited our business and our employees by ensuring that decisions that have a financial impact on Sage, its clients or stakeholders, are run through a process that ensures we have done our best thinking and decision making.

Cathy Sedacca is director of sales and marketing for Sage Business Credit. She partnered with Karen Turnquist to found Sage because she believed they could do what had been done by others, but better. Working closely with clients who share the same vision for their own business is the best part of her job.