Module 1: Decision Foundations

Types of Decisions and Who Should Make Them

Leaders make dozens of decisions every week, from which supplier to pay first to whether to open a new branch. Treating them all the same way causes two opposite problems. Some leaders agonise over small choices and become a bottleneck. Others make big, hard-to-reverse choices in a hurry. The first skill of effective decision making is classifying the decision in front of you, so you can give it the right amount of time and the right people.

Classifying decisions by type

A practical way to sort decisions is by how often they occur and how much is at stake:

A useful rule: the more often a decision recurs, the more you should turn it into a rule and push it down. The rarer and bigger it is, the more time and senior attention it deserves.

Who should make the decision?

Many decisions go wrong not because the choice was poor but because the wrong person made it, or nobody was clear who was meant to. Ask these questions:

1. Who has the information? Decisions are often best made close to where the information is: the branch manager knows local customers better than head office.
2. Who will live with the consequences? People who must carry out a decision are more committed when they shaped it.
3. Who has the authority? Some decisions are legally or formally reserved, for example for the board, a licensed officer or someone with a delegated spending limit. Check your organisation's delegation of authority.
4. How much is at risk? Higher risk generally needs more senior sign-off or more people involved.
5. How urgent is it? In a genuine emergency, one person may need to decide quickly and explain afterwards.

Decision styles

Once you know who owns the decision, choose how they will make it. Common styles include:

• Decide alone: fast, suitable for urgent or low-impact decisions.
• Consult, then decide: the owner gathers views and makes the final call. Suitable for most tactical decisions.
• Decide together: the group reaches agreement. Slower, but builds commitment for decisions the whole group must carry out.
• Delegate: someone else decides within agreed limits.

Always tell people which style you are using. If you consult people and they think they are voting, they will feel misled when you decide differently.

A worked example

Mary owns three pharmacies in Nairobi. She found herself spending hours each week on decisions such as approving small refunds, choosing which staff could swap shifts and deciding whether to stock a new brand of vitamins. Meanwhile, she had delayed for months a decision about whether to open a fourth branch.

She classified her decisions. Refunds below a fixed amount in KES became a routine rule, delegated to branch supervisors. Shift swaps were delegated to supervisors as long as each shift kept at least one registered pharmacist on duty, a requirement she knew she must meet. Stocking decisions became operational: supervisors could propose, and she would approve weekly in one batch. The fourth-branch decision was strategic, so she blocked two half-days, gathered sales data, visited sites and consulted her accountant. The result: less time on small decisions and a well-prepared decision on the big one.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Treating every decision as urgent and important. This exhausts you and slows the business.
• Delegating without limits. "You decide" without boundaries leads to surprises. State the limits clearly.
• Pretending to consult. Asking for views when the decision is already made damages trust.
• Taking back delegated decisions. Overruling small delegated decisions teaches people to send everything back to you.