Christopher Seifert: Ending Micromanagement by Improving Decision-Making

About Christopher Seifert:

Chris Seifert, founder of Enabling Empowerment, is a dynamic leader dedicated to transforming organizational leadership and team performance. With 20+ years in manufacturing operations and strategic advisory, he empowers leaders through innovative strategies.

At Enabling Empowerment, Chris combats micromanagement with training and coaching that foster creativity, ownership, and shared leadership. His achievements include leading a renewable energy company’s growth from $450M to $1B, boosting production by 200%, and delivering $300M in EBITDA improvements. He also founded an Operational Excellence Practice at Wilson Perumal and is a decorated Naval Officer.

 

In this episode, Dean Newlund and Christopher Seifert discuss:

• Decision-making as a teachable skill
• Micromanagement and poor decision systems
• The seven-step decision-making framework
• Decision rights based on competence
• Decision-making and employee engagement

 

Key Takeaways:

• Implementing a structured decision-making framework allows leaders to respond effectively to both strategic and emergency situations, scaling the level of rigor based on urgency and risk.
• Leaders often become micromanagers not because of arrogance or distrust, but because they are stuck in a cycle where their team relies on them for every decision, leading to burnout and inefficiency.
• Organizations that grant decision-making authority based on demonstrated competence rather than rank create a more effective leadership structure, allowing better decisions at every level.
• Employee engagement increases when individuals feel they have a real impact on decisions, and leaders can foster this by involving their teams in the decision-making process rather than simply handing down directives.

 

"Few organizations I've come across deliberately improve decision-making as a skill for their leaders. They leave it to chance, hoping they make more good decisions than bad and the bad ones don't wreck the company.” — Christopher Seifert

 

Connect with Christopher Seifert:  

Website: https://enablingempowerment.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EnablingEmpowerment

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherseifert/ & https://www.linkedin.com/company/enabling-empowerment/

 

 

See Dean’s TedTalk “Why Business Needs Intuition” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEq9IYvgV7I

 

Connect with Dean:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgqRK8GC8jBIFYPmECUCMkw

Website: https://www.mfileadership.com/

The Mission Statement E-Newsletter: https://www.mfileadership.com/blog/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannewlund/

X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/deannewlund

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MissionFacilitators/

Email: [e-mail]

Phone: [phone]

 

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by T