Practicing good judgement
The Attain Performance communications team sat down with founder, Robert Smith, to hear his thoughts about the importance of good judgment in today’s fast-paced and globalized business environment.
Good judgment is definitely essential in today’s business world. Think of the newspaper headlines when something goes seriously wrong, and the people are looking for who to blame.
If you’re operating in any setting, one of the key strengths you look for in leadership is good judgment. You cannot give some big manual and say this is how you practice it. At the end of the day, you’re faced with so many different things, some of them unpredictable, some you have never experienced before, and you cannot have instructions that cover everything. Good judgment is a crucial human skill that needs to be developed.
So, if it’s a skill, how can it be developed?
As a start, adopting active listening skills is very important in developing that all important critical thinking mind set. You need to be able to listen, without distraction to different viewpoints, gathering information, and sometimes you have to do that very quickly. You have to focus on what people are saying, extracting the relevant information, assimilating it, looking for other non-spoken cues, and only then consider what’s right and what isn’t, what’s worth focusing on and what remains unclear or unconvincing. But it doesn’t’ end there, you need to evaluate the pros and cons of any proposed decision, while not losing sight of your objectives and what it is you’re trying to achieve. You have to always bring it back to your goals and to keep in mind how important your values are. Having a moral and ethical compass is crucial.
How can you develop critical thinking in the organisation?
Its important to bring emerging leaders at a young age into more senior level meetings and let them participate by asking their opinion and input. In those meetings, they can observe, listen, and see how a discussion would take place around a particular problem or particular opportunity. They can then witness how managers make their decisions. Unfortunately, young people don’t get exposed to that kind of thing very often. In return, they must be willing to give their input and contribute. That way, they can see how the process works, how people evaluate and make decisions and how they make sure those decisions are within the values of the organization.
I can still remember the first time I was invited into a meeting with the MD of our UK branch in London as a fresh graduate and when I was asked my opinions on the meeting agenda and how he told others to listen to me and not interrupt. The impact of that has lasted with me my entire life. The fail-safe process for critical thinking is for young leaders to have exposure and tune them in to observe, develop opinions and discuss those with a trusted mentor or close group of peers. As they develop then they will have experience to call upon when things don’t go to plan and the confidence to seek alternative opinions and data to improve decision making. A practice of self-reflection then becomes increasingly important to consider decisions taken, what was the outcome, what went well, what didn’t and how to improve.
As a leader, how do you try to encourage your people to practice sound decision making?
Effectively, at the end of the day, you have to give them the chance to make decisions and judgments. If you believe the judgment, they’re taking is wrong, you have to let them know why. This can also be further facilitated by letting people know how you made a certain decision, rather than just saying ‘this is the decision go off and do it.’ The combination of allowing decision making by young leaders in a supportive environment plus teams understanding why decisions are taken by senior leaders will long term facilitate better overall decision making. In addition, refection on how those decisions have succeeded or not is best practice.
How do you know if the decision you’re making is actually based on good judgment?
Every time you have to make decisions, go through a process. Consider the pros and cons, what might go wrong, what risks are understood and can be mitigated, whether you have the ability to control the situation, whether you understand or don’t understand the data or set of assumptions. If you simply go forward without a good plan, without knowledge of what you’re doing, and having the right people there to implement it, then you’re likely making a bad judgement call. Also have clarity of mind as to the desired outcome or what might be called what success looks like, then decide the probability of success knowing what you know at that point.
How do you find a balance between the pressures of making quick decisions in today’s fast-paced business environment and making the right call?
Sometimes you can be pressurized, and sometimes teams can say about their manager that they’re not quick in making decisions or they can’t decide, or even worse…. that they make bad decisions. The key to making a fast and effective decision is that you’ve got to be able to get to the right information quickly, ask the right questions and then assimilate that information in your head and form a decision. Good judgement comes from having the right information. Train your teams into understanding the process and what information they need to provide in order to have fast and effective decisions taken. Decisions then become more of a collective responsibility, and everyone has a sense of ownership on the outcome.
If we’re talking to people starting their careers, are there any more tips you would like to share?
It’s a bit like when you learn to drive your car, at first, you’re driving with great focus and attention. But after a few years, it becomes almost an instinctual process. It’s the same with decision making and good judgement. In the beginning, it’s something new, so give yourself a framework that you are comfortable with, which allows you to help make that decision and then test it to see if it’s working and then adapt it. Don’t overcomplicate it, but just find something that works for you. Keep in mind that good judgment will definitely come with time, the more you practice it the more you’ll perfect it. That said, and using the analogy of learning to drive, never get too comfortable. I have personally made bad judgement calls when taking my eye off the road or focusing too much into the future and not focusing on what’s in front of me.