As a team leader in charge of other managers and section heads, you have a responsibility of ensuring that they move the business agenda forward through making right and timely decisions regarding their functions/sections/units. It is up to you to provide them with the right environment and empower them so that you can trust them to deliver while you concentrate on shaping the bigger strategic picture.

This is easier said than done, and as one of senior executives shared with us, it can be frustrating to have a team that cannot make decisions and that keeps referring to you constantly. You end up loosing business opportunities and wasting valuable time in the process. In case you did not know, if you have managers who cannot make decisions, they end up becoming more of a liability than an asset.

In the month of December 2009, this was the topic I handled in the in the "Manager's Advice" column of the Management Journal of KIM (Kenya Institute of Management).

Question: Why is Decision making so hard?

I supervise a team of 50 employees and six of them report directly to me. I believe my direct reports are very competent managers but I am very worried about their inability to make decisions. My job entails a lot of travel and sometimes they have to call me even when I am in a different continent so they can seek my counsel. I have created an environment where I give my managers power to make decisions and room to make mistakes (as long as the mistakes don't cost the company a lot) they can use this as a learning experience. I also reward and praise them for making good decisions. I don't understand why my staffs are so fearful. How should I empower them? Is there anything I as a manager can do?

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