As leaders, we face endless situations in everyday life that require a quick response and decision-making. The manager does not have to seek to resolve all situations him/herself but may share the responsibility for decision-making with the other members of his/her organization. To facilitate decision-making, the role of the leader is to guide goal-oriented dialogue and clarify the objectives with a reasonable timeframe.

Many leaders involuntarily take up or fall into the role of boss, or decision-maker. In this role, it must be accepted that there are not always ideal conditions for taking decisions: policies must be agreed on based on incomplete knowledge, the best of the options presented must be chosen, and solutions found in conflicting situations.

It is also difficult to make high-quality decisions because there are so many decision-making situations. Even if the leader has the wisdom to get to know the matter at hand, there is often not enough time left for checking the background and consideration of decisions‘ effects can be difficult. Having a genuine dialogue in such an atmosphere may lead to the exhaustion of a result-oriented and conscientious leader.

A good leader helps you learn, realize, and influence responsibly

The best leadership is to help people learn new ways of thinking and acting in practice. This also provides an opportunity for the manager to share responsibility for decision-making. In this case, the role of the leader changes to the guide of the dialogue: he/she does not give direct answers but asks open questions and challenges you to think and act independently. In other words, managers have at least three options in terms of objectives:

  • Make a one-time decision him/herself.
  • Share or show how team members should work in the future.
  • Asking open questions to help people find the best course of action.

Clear goals enable responsible influence in the organization

The goals are a source of motivation for the manager and other people in the organization, although their definition involves ethical consideration. The clearer the goals are in mind, the easier it is to operate effectively, often in a chaotic and complex environment. The objectives help to reflect progress towards the goals. They also facilitate decision-making and action to achieve them.

A processive leadership approach helps you realize solutions

Often, managers ask to learn about the situation themselves so that they can make a wise decision. The challenge of leadership is to guide the dialogue purposefully towards conclusions in which the subordinated person commits him/herself to action, as well as the constraints, for example, in terms of schedule and use of resources.

In Innotiimi-ICG, we call this processive leadership approach. Learning and realizing begins with a skilful definition of a problem or a challenge – no problem, no solution. Processive leadership requires understanding-oriented sharing or creative dialogue. In particular, strategic dialogue is a challenge for leaders but a necessary prerequisite for strategic learning. The strategic dialogue helps us to find out which problems you should solve and use time and resources on.

Get good feedback skills

Corrective feedback when given poorly can lead to a negative spiral and cause guilt and paralysis, and at worst lead to exhaustion. At Innotiimi-ICG, we have developed a method for providing constructive corrective feedback and positive reinforcing feedback aimed at improving occupational safety, among other things. The results have been excellent. Constructively provided corrective feedback and positive affirmative feedback increases a person’s self-esteem and activates us to work for our most important goals.