Should managers make all the decisions?

I often tell my team members I’m not qualified to make a particular decision or judgment call. I do this on purpose in order to reinforce two specific cultural dimensions in our division:

Idea Meritocracy

I discovered this term by reading about Ray Dalio and Bridgewater. Decisions should not be made through consensus (democracy) or by the managers alone (socialism) but through healthy debate and deference to whoever is most qualified to make each decision (idea meritocracy). Ray sometimes uses the term “believability weighted” decision making.

Non Political

Bill Campbell was a legendary business coach who mentored Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Jeff Bezos. He believed one of the manager’s main jobs is to facilitate decisions not make them. The problem with places where top management makes all the decisions is it leads to exactly the opposite.

People end up spending their time trying to convince the manager that their idea is the best. In these environments we end up with politics because it’s not about the best idea carrying the day. It’s about who does the best job of lobbying the leader.