Too many people believe that a fast decision keeps the pressure off

A survey published by the Chartered Management Institute conducted over the past few weeks found that three in ten senior managers in the engineering industry have taken a decision "against their better judgement" in the past six months. Of those, 20% claimed undue pressure from colleagues affected the way they made decisions and 12% suggested they lack the time to consider problems carefully. A further 12% blamed poor decisions on bureaucracy.

It could be worse, I suppose: seven out of ten presumably have not taken a single decision against their better judgement, but even so, having to make any decisions you don't agree with is never going to result in much self-motivation, is it? The survey also found that engineering industry managers prefer to make decisions based on rational analysis (surprise!) with only 14% admitting to relying on "gut feelings". The Chartered Management Institute reminds us to think about the effects on colleagues or team members before making our minds up; that doesn't mean opting for the easy way out, but consider an issue from the point of view of what will work best for others involved.

Also, they say, too many people believe that a fast decision keeps the pressure off. Instead, if we allow ourselves time to assess all the options, we're more likely to reach a conclusion based on clear, considered arguments. And we should always remember to communicate our decisions: people are unlikely to know why we want things done a certain way unless we tell them.

Basic management stuff? Maybe. But I think many of us can't be reminded of this often enough. More on the subject: http://www.engineeringtalk.com/information/cmi-editorial.html