Keeping the Lines of Management Intact

Cultivating a good manager takes finesse and experience. In fact, it is like creating a fine wine. You harvest the best grapes, so the desired ingredients will be present. You distil in order to increase the concentration and purity, and then it must age in order to reach its peak performance. The same can be said for a manager. Key ingredients such as reliability, ability to make competent decisions and possess innate leadership qualities must be present in order to become a successful manager. If any of those ingredients is missing or is skewed in relation to the other, the combination can be reckless and create undesirable consequences down the road.

Let's say that one of your managers, showing the promise of an excellent senior level leader, begins making key decisions without going through the chain of command for final approval. It is crucial at this time that you are not correcting them by reacting in a negative manner by criticizing, blaming, or yelling at them for their lack of judgment. There is a fine line between helping a senior level leader clarify their role in decision making and quite another to squelch their creativity and leadership judgments and abilities. Remember the analogy of producing a fine wine. Care and time will ensure a quality product.

It's far more constructive to have a face-to-face with the leader and compliment their initiative in making decisions. Let them know that you are observing their performance and comment on it. Ask them if they've noticed that they are making key decisions without input from management. Your approach should be determined based on their answer.

If they say yes, then acknowledge their contribution and discuss the fact that many decisions will need to be made individually, but key decisions will need input from other management as well. After all, many decisions can have considerable impact in areas of the company that haven't even been considered, so you need to be very specific about which types of decisions need additional management input. Reiterate the fact that you are pleased with their initiative and general decision making skills, but certain decisions must be a shared responsibility. As you specify examples of issues that would need decision input from other management, plainly state that that you should be consulted in the future. Provide examples of decisions that have been made recently where you wanted to be consulted so that they have a point of reference.

In closing the discussion, remind them that whether the decision they made turned out to be the correct one or not isn't the issue here. The message you want to send is when to involve management in decision making. The point of whether the decision outcome is successful or not isn't relative. Don't get trapped into a debate of whether the answer was "obvious" or not. Sharing the responsibility shows respect for management when appropriate.

Final Thought: Communication is the cornerstone of good management. Initiating a significant, yet warm and casual discussion with your management employee about how you need decisions to be handled, will soon see you enjoying the fruits of your labor.