Unlocking Better Decision-Making

Why Decision-Making gets stuck and what to do about it

Decision-making is one of those essential leadership skills that sounds straightforward, but in reality, it often isn’t. In fact, one of my clients recently shared her deep frustration about a project that was stalling simply because key decisions were not being made. Meetings came and went, but alignment remained elusive.

Sound familiar?

This isn’t only a logistical issue. If you’re a global leader, it’s likely you’re navigating multiple layers: different time zones, team structures, communication styles, and of course, cultural differences. If you’ve ever felt blocked when trying to move a decision forward, there’s probably more going on beneath the surface than you think.

Let’s break it down and look at how to improve your decision-making as a leader, particularly within global and multicultural contexts.

The Foundations: Space, Time and Clarity

We often rush meetings. We want them short, snappy and efficient. But the truth is, decision-making can take time. It needs room for debate, questions, clarification and sometimes reflection.

So the first practical step is to build the time into your meetings. Try this ‘backwards agenda’ method: state the decision you want to make at the beginning of the meeting, and then ten minutes before the end, pause and ask the team, “Are we ready to take this decision?”

It’s a powerful question. It helps surface if there’s missing information, unresolved perspectives or absent stakeholders. It provides clarity- is this decision happening now, later, or elsewhere?

Alongside this, Communication Charters can be incredibly valuable, a clearly agreed process identifying explicitly how your team makes decisions. Who’s accountable? Who needs to be consulted? How will you communicate and how often? Has everyone agreed to that process?

Without this, things drift. With it, you lay the foundation for productive communication and project momentum.

The Cultural Layer: What you’re probably overlooking

Once the foundations are in place, we need to address something many overlook: cultural dynamics. In global leadership, cultural intelligence is vital for your impactful communication and effective decision-making.

Let’s start with two key areas:

1. Uncertainty Avoidance

How comfortable are you and your team with risk? In some cultures, it’s normal to make a decision, experiment and adapt later. In others, there’s a strong preference to consider every outcome, the different angles on risk and gather the available evidence for the winning route before making a move.

If your team needs certainty and data, but you’re pushing for quick decisions, you’ll likely hit resistance. Vice versa, it’s also a challenge. Understanding and adapting your approach when you face different preferences to your usual approach is crucial.

2. Expressiveness

Some cultures value high expressiveness, energy and conviction to determine how committed you are to your recommendation. Others expect a cooler, more neutral style of delivery, with too much emotion viewed as unprofessional.

So ask yourself: how are you coming across? How do your decision-makers expect ideas to be presented? Adjusting your communication style here can make a significant difference in getting the buy-in and commitment.

Power and Collaboration: Invisible Influencers

Beyond Uncertainty Avoidance and Expressiveness, two other culturally-influenced behavioural preferences shape decision-making in teams: power distance and collaboration.

3. Power Distance

In high power distance cultures, decision-making can be more formal and hierarchical. A more junior team member skipping levels to influence and ask for buy-in to their recommendation would be inappropriate. If you’re used to flatter structures, this can be confusing. 

So plan accocordingly. If the real decision requires you to influence your peers or senior managers to build the discussion top to top, this might take time in the days or even weeks before the meeting has even started. Don’t assume the meeting is the place where decisions are truly made.

4. Collaboration Norms

In collaborative cultures, decision-making is about consensus. Dissent and disagreement aren’t openly expressed, so alignment must be carefully constructed behind the scenes.

This means your influence work starts before the meeting and continues afterwards. Whether it’s 1 to 1 chats, informal check-ins or follow-ups, don’t underestimate the importance of what happens outside the formal setting.

Reflect and Take Action: Are you setting yourself up for decision-making success?

So, let’s get practical. Consider these key reflection questions to apply what you’ve learned today:

• What decisions are currently stuck in your team or project?
  
  
• Have you allowed enough time and space before, during and after your meetings to build consensus and alignment, and for decisions to happen?
  
  
• How do culturally-driven behavioural preferences around uncertainty avoidance, expressiveness, power distance and collaboration play out in your team?
  
  

By taking the time to explore these questions, you can unlock new clarity and momentum in your leadership. When you understand the deeper dynamics of decision-making, you can unlock your impact.

Next Steps: Free Resource for Your Development

Decision-making isn’t only a business skill. It’s a core global leadership communication skill, and one that you can develop with the right tools.

To support you in this, I’ve created a free resource: Global Leader Impact- 5 short, high-impact videos delivered to your inbox, one per day, to help you strengthen your communication skills, increase your leadership influence and accelerate your growth. It’s a great next step for your development as a global leader.

You can access it now by visiting https://culturecuppa.com/leader