Taking calls

Making decisions is part and parcel of being a leader. It might feel empowering to take calls, but the hallmark of authentic leadership is in enabling others to do this. The smoother the decision-making process and the lesser the blockers, the better it is for the organization.

One route to get there is to create frameworks, rules, and principles for decision making. When your team wants to do something and are confused about how to get there, they clawback to the principles and use them, for example, take hiring. Having a clear-cut framework for hiring that covers all aspects starting from what questions to ask, how many rounds of interview, how to reject or accept candidates, what qualities to look for in candidates aids the hiring decision process. By having this, teams are allowed to make hiring decisions on their own.

Also, when taking calls, articulate your thought process. Make everyone aware of your assumptions, questions you asked, data you looked at, and what trade-offs you weighed in. Laying out in the open the way you arrived at a decision helps others to traverse the same path on their own the next time.

To summarise, instead of taking calls on behalf of others, go that extra mile to create a framework which enables them to do this independently the next time. Also, laying out the decision-making process in the open allows everybody to peek at your thought process so that they can borrow it the next time.