Supervisor-Skills-Reference-Guide

MAKING DECISIONS
It is one thing to analyze a problem and suggest a
solution. It is quite another thing to “pull the trigger” and
make a decision. Managers who have less experience
tend to lean more heavily on policy when making
decisions. More experienced managers lean more on
policy, facts and their experience.
1. Policy- Policy, procedures, rules and regulations
offer concrete guidance to decision-making. They
offer support and justification for the decision, but
often will reduce the decision to a “black-white”
exercise.
2. Facts- Managers need to verify that which they did
not observe. While facts tend to be seen
differently by different people, many are not in
dispute and can steer a supervisor toward a more
supportable decision.
3. Experience- Before managers can lean on or use
experience, they must have experience. The point
is that they should use their experiences to
sometimes override a “text book” response. It
takes correct interpretations of experiences to
glean the “truths” from them.
4. Intuition- People have hunches or “gut feelings”
that are probably based on several things. It is
hard to pinpoint why we have a feeling that this
solution is good, but we do. There is nothing
wrong with this mode, but recognize that it is less
defensible.
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