Making Decisions from an Ivory Tower
I watched it happen when I was in manufacturing. When decisions which affect the assembly line are made in the boardroom they seldom work and are always resented. The quality of work diminishes and production stalls.
I watched it happen when I was in sales. When procedures are handed down as edicts, without including the input of salespeople, morale is damaged, which ultimately has a negative impact on sales.
In several churches I’ve consulted with recently, I’ve realized it also happens in churches. When the pastor, or a body of senior leaders, makes a decision that impacts the children’s ministry, for example, without the input of people who are actually doing children’s ministry, resentment builds, momentum stalls, and people resist the changes.
Be careful making decisions from “the Ivory Tower”. Many leaders lead with a top down approach, passing down decisions without consulting with those who have to live with them. It’s easy in leadership to forget that real people have to implement your decisions.
Don’t stand in the tower. Get out among the people you lead.
Great leaders build decisions from the ground up, not from the top down.
Want people to buy-in to your decisions?
Let the people having to implement them be a part of making them.
How is your organization making decisions?
