Why Management Decisions Should Only Be Made By Management

More than one general manager of a sports franchise has stated "when I make decisions based on what the fans think, it's time for me to get out of my office and into the stands and become one of them".

Whether it is the member of a church, a director on the board of a Bible camp, or the parent of a student in a private school, at some point this individual will deem it their right to offer an opinion on a management decision and demand that their opinion be accepted. Pastors are hired to (among other things) make administrative decisions. Executive directors make program decisions for a Bible camp. School principals have expertise in the administration of the school. And we will readily acknowledge that expertise until that expertise does not align with our opinion.

People are entitled to their opinions. Church members can vote in a new board or join a new church. Corporate members can vote different directors onto a Bible camp board. Parents can lobby at the PTA or send their children to a different school. But when the decisions of the leader are made based on the response of a constituency, that is not the leader you want.

The rank-and-file can voice their dissatisfaction with a leader by voting in new directors at the next AGM. If the board of an organization functions using Policy Governance^®, the leader is responsible for every management decision; reporting only to the board so it can monitor compliance with the limitations which it has put in place.

Once the board, or worse yet the members, begin weighing in on management decisions, you will eventually (read soon) have utter chaos. Neither directors nor members should ever be allowed to weigh in on administrative decisions. If so, the leader would need to go to the board to get approval for every (and I mean every) decision. Directors would ostensibly have the right to determine who is hired, which volunteers are accepted, a camp menu, the pastors preaching series and the brand of toilet paper used. While some may suggest that deciding on the brand of toilet paper is ridiculous, those same people will not be able to identify at what point along the continuum of arbitrary input, the point of ridiculous was reached.

So let your board govern and your leader manage.