The T-word
As an individual contributor, I found it easier to know how I had grown or how I wanted to grow professionally. I don’t often experience the same clarity as a manager. A couple of times when the uneasy thought of “What have I learned in the past year?” came to mind, I was stumped for answers.
Two of my biggest professional anxieties revolve around feelings that I have flatlined and am no longer learning. As a manager, I experience these feelings more frequently than I would like.
Over time and through practice, I have learned to pause and take stock of the situation in time of uncertainty. During a recent span of feeling burnt out and needing a reset, an insight dawned on me while perusing Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, by Chip and Dan Heath.
The Heath brothers explain how common “villains” — narrow framing, confirmation bias, short-term emotion, and overconfidence — often infiltrate our mind whenever we make decisions. These villains are flaws in our decision-making process. They stem from our natural biases because “the normal state of your mind is that you have intuitive feelings and opinions on almost everything that comes your way.”
As I read through the real-life examples portrayed in the book, various conversations with friends and colleagues came to mind and I became palpably aware of the intrinsic value of trust in any decision-making process.
As a manager, my team has to trust me and the decisions I make on their behalf. To earn that trust, my team has to know that I have their interest at heart, and understand how I arrived at my decisions. The process by which a manager makes decisions impacts the dynamic of the team and creates ripples throughout the organization. The best outcomes are through solid process, transparency, and the team feeling heard and empowered. Even if a decision turns out not to be the right one, if the team knows it is the best call given the information available at the time, they are less fearful of the consequences and better prepared to course-correct.
I’ve learned that trust has to go in the other direction, too. It is impossible (and too taxing) for me to make all the decisions. There are plenty of decisions that my team has to make on their own. My role as a manager is to help them in their process, and trust them to make the ultimate decision.
Recently, after reviewing a project with a designer, I realized that I was over-directing and making too many decisions with very little and superficial information. When I took a step back, I could see the confirmation bias and overconfidence all over those decisions. The next morning, I clarified that my feedback was intended to offer guidance and not a be-all and end-all. Especially, with a designer who’s early on in their career, it is crucial for someone in my position to provide tools and frameworks rather than prescriptive answers as a way to help build their decision-making confidence.
Aside from providing the structure and guidance for how teams should make decisions, managers should also convey the importance of communicating how they have arrived at a decision. This is guided by the questions such as “What are we trying to learn or to achieve?” “What are the constraints and considerations?” “What are the tradeoffs?” “What are the potential outcomes?” When a person has demonstrated thoroughness in their thinking and communicated the process clearly, it is easier for others to rally behind them and their decision.
Decisions and trust go hand in hand. Thus, promoting a culture of trust is paramount in any team or organization. When the team believes in the process rather than just the final decision, they feel driven to deliver, their morale improves, and they have the confidence to take risks. But building trust requires effort. Not only do we have to earn trust, we also have to maintain it. Being cognizant and being able to articulate this point of view, and to put them into practice, have been a significant learning process for me as a manager.
Big thanks to Jennifer Bader for editing this post.
