Have you ever tried to make a decision without any (or with incomplete) data? You feel like you’re driving with one eye closed. The sad fact is that many of us are doing this all too frequently because facts and data are in short supply in our organizations. So, how can we get better data?
Regular Reporting
Most managers are not receiving data via regular reports. At a minimum, there should be monthly financial and productivity reports, where appropriate, but monthly is often a bit too long of a time frame to catch and correct problems early. Where possible, weekly financial performance, employee/team performance, and overall company performance reports can be extremely helpful in catching and stopping problems before they get out of hand. Depending on the nature of the business, the manager may need additional regular reports at custom frequency intervals. It’s worth taking a few minutes to determine what data you need regularly, setting up the reporting process to receive it, and alerting the team to those expectations moving forward.
Team Meetings
Another major improvement opportunity for managerial decision-making is regular meetings with the leadership team. I get it, most people hate meetings. Most meetings are very poorly planned and executed, so the hatred is justified. But the more senior the manager, the more his/her job is to literally meet with various combinations of leadership team members to support their execution of operational tasks. I suggest some combination of weekly/bi-weekly and monthly meetings depending on the size of the organization and the number of leadership team members. At the very least, a monthly meeting with the full leadership team and a monthly meeting with each individual team member is critical.
What should these meetings accomplish? Status updates on any outstanding projects, requests from the team member and offers from the leader about how the leader can support progress, overall discussion of supervisory performance, overall discussion of the company’s performance and strategic goals along with the team member’s role in those, and discussion and decision making on any critical items. Again, additional company-specific items may be incorporated.
Presence
Some managers like to refer to this as “management by walking around”. Call it what you like, the manager can collect a tremendous amount of qualitative data by being present throughout his/her company. This includes not only meetings as discussed above, but also visiting the company’s stores and locations, joining employees for lunch, shadowing employees at work, pitching in for a few hours on the job, and even occasionally joining a small team project (like sealing envelopes). Anecdotal though it may be, managers must know the general “temperature” of their company, and there is no other way to find it out than spending some time in the trenches with employees.
There are many other ways to collect useful data for decision-making, but these are three of the most critical. Take a few minutes to audit improvement opportunities in your management style or in your organization. Develop a plan to act on those opportunities. It will make a huge difference, and may just prevent that next massive emergency!
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