During all your working life you are taking responsibility for every decision you make. There is no importance on what things it impacts. What really matters is your skills of analysis and taking into account other points of view. That is why we are here – to speak about the deciding styles.
Before we discuss the styles, firstly, we will try to understand why the styles of making decisions are so meaningful. Regardless of the position you held, you should clearly realize the process of taking solutions since this understanding will contribute to more effective cooperation within the team. Also, thanks to developing the skills of making the right decisions, you can improve your leadership qualities. After you learn the styles of making solutions, you will better recognize the whole process of deciding on your own, plus you will have a vision of how other people take solutions. Besides learning and understanding, defining your style of deciding is also essential since it helps control the cases that require making decisions.
Now, let’s figure out what are the principal deciding styles.
There are several components that every style of deciding should have – social emphasis or tasks and equivocacy tolerance. The deciding styles with high tolerance level have one crucial feature – they can deal with unidentified varying things when reaching the conclusion point. As for the styles with low tolerance level, the workers should have a clear vision about all potential obstacles and details, which will influence their solution.
Besides the tolerance level, the deciding styles also differ by the emphasis on task or social matters.
The styles with social emphasis comprise considering the attitude of other people who work for the result. As for the styles with task orientation, people take solutions premising how best they can achieve the aim.
Now, we are presenting you the principal styles of deciding. Additionally, we are giving you examples that you can apply to your job.
- The directorial deciding style is characterized by a momentous process of deciding. There are not dubious and vague things. People with this deciding style have a strong orientation on their tasks, and they apply mainly all their knowledge and experience. The opinion of other people is included selectively.
Besides intense task concentration, people with directional deciding style have excellent skills of verbal communication. When taking solutions, they use logic and rationales. In situations when it requires deciding fast, people with directional deciding style are very helpful. Mainly they are helpful when needing to make a short-term solution.
Now there is a case of how directional deciding style works in everyday life: The management of organization X decided to increase option 347 (g) for all the workers when they go through a probationary period of 90 days. And now the General Director has to make a solution – if the organization can deliver money for the workers that give their money to this fund of 347 (g). The director also reflects on another important thing – whether the organization will engage the experts thanks to this solution. To take a decision, the general manager uses the term budget framework. While looking at it, she reflects on how the money from the other project can be used in compliance with the workers’ fees. All of this helps him come to the following solution – the organization will give 4% to all the workers who pay fees to the funds.
- Analytical deciding style: This style comprises thorough data analysis before taking any decision. People with such deciding style have the ability to quickly adjust to different situations and caution. They need a lot of time to collect all the details, analyze it, and choose the thing that, according to them, is the best choice among the potential. In addition, people with this deciding style are more concentrated on tasks, and they have a high tolerance level of equivocacy.
How to apply the deciding style based on analytic? There is a case: The team of marketing has to define the ways of expanding their audience by using today’s advertising. The director of the marketing department asks every head of the departments to make a report about the spheres they are responsible for, plus adding the demographic data. When the reports are ready, the management examines them and meets the department heads. After that, the marketing director comes to the following conclusion – to buy more advertising space on the sites for one month.
- Deciding style based on conceptions: People with such style are considered as overview thinkers and ready to take a risk. They take various variants and opportunities and judge them from the high equivocacy tolerance point. Compared to the previous deciding style, this style comprises the concentration on social issues. It requires some time to evaluate all big ideas and innovative decisions. After taking a solution, people with a conceptual deciding style look forward to everything taking place in the future. They make solutions based on imagining the opportunities and future results. With this style, people take only long-term decisions.
The example of the based on conceptions deciding style – Harry operates a small business that shows excellent results at the start. He plans to expand his business and open new outlets in the whole country in the nearest future. After knowing that the other company is building its new shopping mall in the neighboring city, Harry decides to establish a new subsidiary. Of course, it is a big risk, but he indeed looks to the future. He is sure that his solution will succeed, and it will help promote his trademark across the whole country.
- Based on the behavior deciding style – Compared to the styles with more task orientation, here, the principal focus is relations. The solutions are based on measuring the feelings of other people. People with this deciding style do not tolerate equivocacy, and they are more concentrated on social issues. The primary source of these decisions is the information provided by other people. They have well-developed skills of convincing, and they appreciate all the solutions made on the team agreement. When taking solutions, people always think about how they will affect the relations.
And now let’s see how we can apply the behavior deciding style – The organization has tasked their personnel manager to define the week that the workers will have as extra paid days of vacation at the end of the year’s end. The manager decides to take a poll among the workers. He mails out, questions the workers during lunch, and simply walks along the corridors and speaks with the workers.
When he knows what week is the most preferable for the majority, he decides to speak to the workers that want the other choice. This way, he wants to ensure that they will be satisfied with any solution. Late in the day, he tells everybody what week the workers will have as extra paid vacation days.
