History remembers great leaders--kings, presidents, CEOs, and the like--
largely for the decisions they make. However, what we often forget is that
these decisions are rarely made alone--leaders will often rely on the help
of others when weighing their options. While some leaders may prefer to
make decisions alone, I think the most effective ones will involve others
in the decision-making process.
Firstly, letting others participate in the process creates stronger bonds
and more trust between the leader and the rest of the group. When others
in the group are brought into the decision-making process, they will feel
more valued and more essential to the group's success. This will engender
a stronger sense of camaraderie and belonging, and subsequently, will lead
them to work harder to see their group succeed at their task. Also, they
will gain some insight into how the leader makes his or her decisions.
This will make the leaders decisions seem less mysterious or arbitrary.
The group will come to trust the leader's decisions more in the future--
even when they are not part of the decision-making process.
Secondly, a leader must attend to many things that demand his or her
attention, and making so many judgment calls without the aid of others
can be extremely tiring. In fact, studies have shown that the act of
decision-making actually fatigues the brain, and that people can only
make a limited number of decisions per day before mental performance
starts to dip and bad decisions start to be made. This is why people often
agree to add needless and expensive options to a new car purchase at the
car dealership--after hours of haggling with sly car salesmen over the
details of a purchase, they are sapped of all their decision-making
sense, and suddenly adding an expensive package to your purchase might
not seem like such a bad idea. For the same reason, leaders should involve
others when making decisions so that they stay sharp for as long as possible.
Finally, when leaders have others involved in the decision-making process,
they have people to double-check the quality of their decisions. This is
related to the above point about decision fatigue--since leaders usually
make the most decisions out of anyone in the group, they will inevitably
make a bad decision once in a while. No leader will be working at 100%
efficiency all the time. However, if a leader can rely on others to set
him or her straight, then it is okay if he or she slips up once in a while
because others can point out the problem and set the leader back on the
right course.
So involving others in the decision-making process not only helps leader
prevent fatigue-induced errors, but it also minimizes the damage when
these errors do occur.