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Guest post by: James Simone Become an Author

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Here is a quick quiz with perhaps a startling outcome for you: how are decisions made at your firm?

Are they:

1. Individual and Entrepreneurial?

2. Professional and managerial?

3. Boss-centred, with an emphasis on process vs. results?

Professor J. Baardwick, in his AMACOM publication, Danger in the Comfort Zone: From Boardroom to Mailroom – How to Break the Entitlement Habit That’s Killing American Business makes the case that the decision-making style of your firm reflects the stage of its life cycle.

Getting consensus around this seemingly simple item will help your firm plot an organizational turnaround strategy.

If you answered that the decision-making style of your firm is:

1. Individual and Entrepreneurial, according to Prof Baardwick,odds are you are in start-up mode.

2. Professional and managerial decision-making are symptomatic of firms in both rapid and steady-growth, while

3. Decision-making that is boss-centred, with an emphasis on process vs. results is evidence of a firm in decline.

Net:

While not necessarily prescriptive, Baardwick goes on to document warning signs of behaviours (evidenced by decision making and other leadership traits) of firms in each stage of the corporate life cycle.

This is compelling information, and an important-read, because when combined with other macro-level indicators of organization health, provides both executives and OD consultants with data to zero-in on hot spots for either removal or targeted improvement activities.

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