History remembers great leaders-kings, presidents, CEOs, and the like- largely for the decision they make. However, what we often forget is that these decisions are rarely made alone-- leaders will often rely on the help pf others when weighing their options. While some leaders may prefer to male decisions alone, I think the most effective ones will involve others in the decision-making process.

Firstly, letting others participate in the process creates stronger bonds and more trust between the leader and the rest of the group. When others in the group are brought into the decision-making process, they will feel more essential to the group’s c=success. This will engender a stronger sense of camaraderie and belonging, and subsequently, will lead them to work harder to see their group succeed at their task. Also, they will gain some insight into how the leader makes his or her decisions. This will make the leaders decisions seem less mysterious or arbitrary. The group will come to trust the leader’s decisions more in the future--even when they are not part of the decision-making process.

Secondly, a leader must attend to many things that demand his or her attention, and making so many judgment calls without the aid of others can be extremely tiring. In fact, studies have shown that the act of decision-making actually fatigues the brain, and that the people can only make a limited number of decisions per day before mental performance stars to be made. This is why people often agree to add needless and expensive options to a new car purchase at the car leadership-- after hours of haggling with sly car salesman over the details of a purchase, they are sapped of all their decision-making sense, and suddenly adding an expensive package to your purchase might not seem like such a bad idea. For the same reason, leaders should involve others when making decisions so that they stay sharp for as long as possible.

Finally, when leaders have others involved in the decision-making process, they have people to double -check the quality of their decisions. This is related to the above point about decision fatigue--since leaders usually make the most decisions out of anyone in the group,they will inevitably make a bad decision once in a while. No leader will be working at 100% efficiency all the time. However, if a leader can rely on others to set him or her straight, then it is okay if he or she slips up once in a while because others can point out the problem and set the leader back on the right course. So involving others in the decision-making process not only helps leader prevent fatigue-induced errors, but it also minimizes the damage when these errors do occur.