I help leaders make decisions every day. Unfortunately, many organizations fail to operate at peak efficiency because of how they make, or refuse to make, decisions.
One of my primary responsibilities for INJOY Stewardship Solutions is identifying opportunity and timing for churches needing to raise significant capital or expand their cultures of generosity. After doing so, then the ability to setup meetings with their leadership teams to present our campaign and generosity services in hopes of serving them is the next step.
Other than the components and technical aspects of the campaign and giving solutions, the top question I get from leaders I speak with is:
“Who should I invite to the meeting?”
As an example, I have been asked this question three times in the past two days alone.
I respond, “Think of a best case scenario. If this meeting is everything you hope it could be and it is clear we can help you accomplish more than you can by yourself, you want to have the people in the room who if they look at each other and nod—you are ready to go.”
It is then I give them the biggest secret to successfully making group leadership decisions.
The more people involved in making a decision, the less likely a decision is to be made.
Every time I say this the other person wholeheartedly agrees. This is because of the Law of Diminishing Returns. As the number of people increases, the overall effectiveness decreases.
Experienced leaders know the more people you have in the room, the more personal agendas, uninformed opinions, poor questions, and an overall lack of vision you get. This can then infiltrate the decision-making process and either hijack the process or grind it to a halt.
So if you have an upcoming important leadership decision which requires board or committee approval, gather information from a large group, but then only make decisions with those necessary to get approval.
This will save you time, energy, and frustration.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.
