Managing Directors face countless decisions. The best executives understand which ones they need to focus on and which ones they can delegate. While the obvious decisions that Managing Directors need to get right involve strategy, too many executives delegate away three key decisions that they need to own: decisions about goals, resource allocation, and people.
Goal setting – Generally, Managing Directors don’t give enough attention to setting goals. The greatest mistake they make is to look in the rearview mirror at what they did last year or at what their competition did. The enlightened ones look at the runway ahead.
Resource allocation – These decisions are important because some strategic moves need disproportionate resources. When resources are allocated from the bottom up instead of from the top down, they get out of sync with what the senior team is trying to accomplish.
People – Most of the time Managing Directors know in their gut when someone is not fit for the job, but they don’t do anything about it. It’s hard to admit the error or recognise that the person cannot be coached or trained to the required performance level.
Great decision-makers stay on top of these three areas, because these are the three areas that have the most impact on whether or not your strategy will be executed. Don’t delegate them away.
