The Democratic Decision-Making Style

Learn about the democratic decision-making style and the situations when it’s most appropriate.

The third style of decision-making that you can use is democratic decision-making. This is when a decision is reached by a majority vote. Buy-in is desirable, but it’s not essential. These are the decisions that we just have to make and then move on with life. Individuals are going to interact. You may have a committee where people come together and form an opinion, but ultimately, we set a deadline, we vote, and we move on.

Imagine a situation where you’re trying to choose a new color and floor plan for the office. This is not a huge decision. It’s not a make-or-break call for the organization, but we do need to make the call and then execute it so we can get back to work. You may assign a committee of people to ultimately choose that color, and you’re going to put it to a vote. Now, not everyone is going to be happy because this is a matter of personal taste so many times. We want as many people as possible to be happy, but we want to make the call and get it done.

As you think about situations where you’re going to apply democratic decision-making, they should be for those smaller decisions that aren’t going to have a huge impact. You need to set a deadline for things to get decided so you can move on and execute.

Want to learn more about decision-making strategies? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start improving your decision-making strategies. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!