Your team leader doubts their decision-making skills. How can you empower them to make confident choices?

This involves by creating a supportive environment, providing resources, and encouraging a growth mindset. First, build a culture of trust where they feel comfortable making decisions without fear of criticism. Ensure they have access to necessary information, tools, and mentorship to make informed choices. Recognize and celebrate their successes to boost confidence and promote a positive mindset. Encourage them to view mistakes as learning opportunities and involve them in strategic discussions to enhance their understanding and value. By creating a supportive, resource-rich environment, you can empower your team leader to make effective decisions confidently.

Expanding leaders' vision through different perspectives is crucial to making robust decisions. Encourage the active search for differing opinions, whether within the team or through professional networks. This practice not only enriches the evaluation of options, but also strengthens trust by demonstrating that decisions are informed by a wide range of insights. By promoting an environment of inclusion and respect for different views, you enable leaders to make more informed decisions that are aligned with the needs and expectations of their organizational context.

When empowering leaders to make decisions, it is essential to promote change. I encourage them to align their choices with their personal values and those of the organization. This alignment not only strengthens the integrity of decisions, but also reinforces self-confidence by showing that your choices are congruent with your deepest principles. This approach not only supports self-esteem, but also promotes a sincere and inspiring leadership environment.

Having a toolbox for decision making is always a good idea particularly when the stakes are moderate to high. From T-lists (pros/cons), SWOT analysis, and impact analysis templates are all supportive of the decision making process. And, once mastered can be effective tools to build leadership and decision making skills to expand leadership talent within varying levels of an organization’s team.

Risk-taking is a vital component of effective leadership, yet it's often hindered by the fear of failure. Encouraging risk-taking isn't just about urging leaders to step out of their comfort zone; it's about creating a culture where failure is seen as a learning opportunity rather than a setback. Challenge your team leaders to undertake small, manageable risks as experiments and gradually increase the complexity. This approach builds their confidence and resilience, preparing them for larger challenges. I challenge you to implement an "Experiment of the Month" award to celebrate those who take calculated risks and learn from the outcomes, fostering a proactive and innovative mindset.

Encouraging calculated risk-taking can be a powerful tool for building your team leader's confidence in decision-making. By creating a safe space to explore options and analyze potential outcomes, you can empower them to step outside their comfort zone. Celebrate successes, big or small, to reinforce the positive impact of their choices. This fosters a learning environment where calculated risks are seen as opportunities for growth, not failures, ultimately leading to more confident decision-making.

It is important that the leader has an opportunity to identify why they doubt their decision-making skills. As a coach, you can facilitate this by creating a trusting space for them to explore the topic without judgement. Once you've uncovered the root cause of this issue, you'll be able to identify how to help them develop that skill. For example, misalignment of values can be a key reason why leaders are doubting their decisions. If this is the root cause of the issue, you can support them to identify their core values and how they can leverage them in decision making situations to act as a compass when multiple options are available.

Reflection is a powerful tool for continuous improvement and confident decision-making. Allocate regular time slots for reflection. This could be weekly or monthly sessions where leaders and team members review their actions and outcomes. Use powerful questions to guide reflection. Questions like "What went well?", "What could have been done differently?", and "What did we learn?" can provide deep insights. Encourage a culture of constructive feedback. Peer reviews and group reflections can offer diverse perspectives and foster a learning environment. Recognise and celebrate small achievements. This not only boosts morale but also reinforces positive behaviours and decisions.

INTROSPECTION & OPEN MINDEDNESS To empower the team leader to take constructive decisions guide them to do introspection through analysis of their performance in respect to decision making in the past, and where they have failed , and what were the reasons and the implications. Let the feed back by stakeholders be invited to see more clearly the weaknesses. This would enable the leader to develop self awareness. Before taking decision let all the data be made available concerning the issue. Let the team opinions be encouraged before taking suitable decisions. Open minded attitude helps development of confidence in decision making.

A true leader talks to the team! Sharing information and listening to opinions and suggestions is key. When you start presenting the worst case scenario, ideas will follow that you can then add to your best case scenario. And do not forget that most likely other people will carry the consequences of your decisions, so it is imperative to keep them informed and listen to what they have to say.