How to Make Better Decisions for Your Company Every Day

NSCA Business & Leadership Conference speaker challenges the typical top-down decision making process of most leaders and managers.

Josh Srago

The NSCA Business & Leadership Conference is merely days old at this point and yet things that I’ve learned in the two and a half days have already appeared in my work days.

While my title is Manager of AV Engineering at the integration firm that employs me, I only oversee one employee—our CAD designer—yet there was still so much that I took away from the conference that I might be able to suggest about how we as a company can progress.

On the second day of the sessions, Mike Abrashoff, a former United States Naval officer, spoke about ‘Achieving Breakthrough Performance.’ There was one statement in his presentation that keyed into the idea that leadership should not just be a top down decision making process.

“While leaders looking down the pyramid and see smiling faces, those looking up have a completely different view.”

How often do you think about those employees on the bottom rung and how your policies to try to be more efficient or cost effective are going to alter their day-to-day operations? How often do you pull those people into a meeting to ask what they think about the way things are being handled or if they have any ideas on how things could be better?

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A perfect example provided was a story Abrashoff shared about one of his enlisted men that was responsible for painting the ship. This was a continuous activity for the sailor as the size of the ship dictated that as soon as he had completed his task, he would turn around and start all over again scraping paint and rust and then painting over it again.

It wasn’t so much the paint that caused the most work; it was the bolts dripping rust from the salt water. When asked what he thought of it and any suggestions he had, he put forward the concept of stainless steel bolts as opposed to what was currently being used.

Even as materials had improved, the US Navy had never changed things because that was the way it had always been done. Now, as opposed to painting the ship every 4-6 weeks, they paint it once every 10 months.

You are the captain of your vessel. When you hit rough waters it is your role to ensure stability and guide your crew through those trials to the other side safe and sound.

But your guidance isn’t what makes the ship move. It isn’t what keeps the ship afloat when it springs a leak. The employees that you hire are the resources that make the ship move and keep it moving, even when things look their bleakest.

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The concerns that you might have as to how to keep moving the business forward are necessary in order to continue to be a leader and continue to grow. But your ears need to work just as well your brain to reach the kinds of success we all dream of attaining.

Those below you that are responsible for executing the plans you and your management team put together will be the first to see whether it is moving the company in the right direction or if there needs to be a slight change of course that could ultimately benefit the company’s efficiency and bottom line.

Investing in those that are on their way up in the industry will guarantee strength and leadership for the future as we continue to move forward and leave the legacy of what has come before the next generation in sure hands. It will give you the opportunity to share what you have experienced and how you overcame adversity and arm those that are preparing to become the industry leadership with something that they are still attaining—experience.

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