More than a quarter of senior executives have considered resigning from a job and more than a third have actually resigned, due to the frustration over the company’s decision making process, said Kingsley Gate, a leading global, private equity-backed executive search firm.  

The research that was undertaken by FT Longitude of the Financial Times Group, under the title “Bad Decisions: Why companies miss the most important factor in executive hiring” examines decision-making as a critical and often overlooked lens to identifying, assessing, onboarding and empowering leadership talent.

FT Longitude surveyed 400 senior executives from companies with more than 1000 employees across five countries in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

“Chief People Officers across the Middle East have taken a visibly more strategic role in supporting their senior executives and CEOs during and post the pandemic,” said Muna Awwadova, Partner, Kingsley Gate’s Dubai office to The HR Observer.

“This has also provided the opportunity for CPOs to enhance their roles as strategic partners to the CEO and Board, including guidance on key decisions impacting company performance and people. We’re also seeing an increased use of People Data Analytics to help support decision making,” added Awwadova.

According to the findings, around 25% of the senior executives said that their decision-making experience, capability or potential was not explicitly discussed before starting their current role which have led to more frustration.

Those senior executives who were asked about decision-making in their interviews are 1.4 times more likely to be satisfied with their jobs overall, and twice as likely to be satisfied with the organisation’s decision-making process. 

A ‘good fit’ does not translate into the executive’s ability to emulate existing decision-making styles, that can help bridge the gap between an organisation’s culture today and where it wants to be tomorrow, explains the report. Therefore, the organisation must look into the decision making style of the individual upon hiring.

Meanwhile, six out of 10 of those  senior executives surveyed, said that  they frequently rely on intuition or ‘gut instinct’ when making decisions; a number that increased to more than three quarters for C-suite executives.

The report recommends decision-making as a role in hiring senior executives to increase the likelihood that the individuals will feel satisfied in their positions overall as well as their organisation’s decision-making.

Moreover, organisations should evaluate candidates’ decision-making styles to ensure an alignment with the organisational style. Therefore, maintain a higher retention as they enable senior executives to thrive and improve organisational decision-making.

The report also recommends incorporating decision-making into performance reviews, lessons learned sessions and other reflective milestones that can help ensure a  ‘virtuous upward spiral’ that improves decision-making at both an individual and organisational level.