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Category Archives: Decision-making

Clutch decisions

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Strictly speaking, a psychiatrist is essentially a physician who specializes in mental disease. . .

Also filed in Management | | Comments (4)

Roundup: from decidedly dopy to dubiously decisive

Friday, September 18, 2009

Excellent stories have been stacking up, with no logical place or time to link to them. So, we’re going to do a roundup today as a venue for offering these truly worthwhile resources. . .

Also filed in Capitalism, Communication, Culture, Group Dynamics, Innovation, The New Sciences | | Comments (1)

Delegating leadership

Friday, February 20, 2009

One of the problems with the word “leadership” is that it is pretty slippery. You can define it to mean whatever you wish to emphasize, under whatever circumstances you face, at any given moment. So, let’s just consider the two basic categories into which definitions of leadership, or its presumed components, tend to fall . . .

Also filed in Delegation, Management Skills, Managing Leadership | | Comments (6)

Delegating decisions

Thursday, February 19, 2009

We have seen that a manager cannot delegate responsibility, but can delegate authority without losing any of it – and without losing any control, into the bargain. So, how does this relate to the commonly made suggestion that employees should be given “ownership” of decisions? To begin with, it points to something that is key to a proper understanding of delegating . . .

Also filed in Delegation, Management Skills | | Comments (0)

Delegating authority

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Your greatest problem as a manager is not the weight of responsibility you bear. That is, of course, a very real burden. But the reason it is not your biggest concern is precisely that there is nothing you can do about it. Except . . .

Also filed in Management Skills, Management Trends | | Comments (3)

Controlling authority

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Many managers are concerned at the prospect of delegating authority to their staffs because they think it amounts to yielding control. Actually, though, you yield neither. We’ll talk about what that means with respect to authority, tomorrow. Today, let’s take a look at control. To begin with, It is worthwhile to bear in mind that there are two ways for a manager to view this function. . .

Also filed in Delegation, Management Skills | | Comments (2)

Managing authority

Monday, February 16, 2009

A common problem at work, remarked upon with strained humor, is that we are given responsibility for our assigned tasks without the necessary authority to make them happen. As we have seen, the idea that responsibility can be given away is a misrepresentation of what actually occurs. But while the distinction should make a difference to the manager, it makes no practical one to the person who is “delegated” this problem. And so, it points to an interesting irony. . .

Also filed in Management Skills | | Comments (0)

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