When you are a first line supervisor, you have someone to rely on when decision time comes along. Your boss and their boss are there to guide you in making decisions, but once you cross the management threshold, you are going to be expected to not only make decisions but recommend courses of action to those up the chain. I want you to have a clear understanding when it comes to your decision-making skill set: You…Will…Fail. You are going to make decisions that are wrong and there is one thing you need to know right now – it is OK to fail. In fact, it is more than OK to fail. You need to learn that taking risks and failing are key learning tools for making you a better leader. Embrace failure to become better.
However, do not just embrace your failures as a learning experience. Take ownership of them! If you do not take ownership of your mistakes, then you are putting them off onto someone else (most likely your staff) and your leaders could lose trust in you. Own up to what you do, and you will be surprised at how others will respect you for it.
The worst boss I ever worked for was never shy about taking risks and would proudly crow when his ideas were successful; however, if things went wrong he was the first person to point fingers at anyone he could find. We had to work for him but trust me, not one of us had an ounce of respect for him and neither did his managers.
There is a quote that has always stuck with me, whose originator is lost to time that says, “Good leaders don’t make good decisions, good leaders make hard decisions.” There will be times when you must make a decision that will be difficult to make. You may feel so strongly about something, you may have mandates that must be implemented, and you may have to push back on a directive that you feel is wrong, is against regulations (or the law) or puts too much of a burden on your staff. It might even be a decision that could set back your career. My advice to you is this: If you feel that the decision is right, if you feel strongly about it, and if you are willing to accept the consequences of your decision (good or bad), then move forward with it.
There are more than a few supervisors, bosses, directors, etc. that I have butted heads with to make my case to push something forward or to push back against a directive or policy I felt strongly about. For a few of them, I was pretty sure that I had burned bridges or put a roadblock on my own career advancement, but I took the leap and stuck to my convictions. Most of the time, I have been able to either make my case even when it was contrary to their views or negotiate a happy medium. Even when I failed to make my case, I was at least able to gain or keep their respect.
The point is, you must make the call and accept the risk. No one else can do it for you. Top tier leaders rarely play it safe, but they also temper it with experience and the knowledge that you should learn when to pick and choose your battles. It brings us back to why taking risks and learning to fail is so important. It teaches you exactly when to push ahead and when to back off; something that playing it safe and only making easy decisions will never teach you.