Leadership & Purchasing Criteria

As leaders we’ll become known for our successful decisions, as well as the decisions we make that created failure. In some cultures, we’ll even have the opportunity to develop a reputation for how resilient we are in the face of failure. However, those cultures are still pretty scarce. Leadership lives and dies, metaphorically by its decision making.

One of the most important decisions leadership makes is related to what gets purchased. Whether it’s a new physical building, a new consulting intervention, a coaching program, or even the nuts and bolts of day to day business, what we decide to buy and why we decide to buy is a critically important leadership competency. I’ve researched the criteria of many different purchasing systems and have created the following questions for leadership to think and feel their way through when contemplating a leadership purchasing decision.

• Why is the purchase important to me now? In the future?
• Are there specific criteria we’ve developed that guide this decision?
• Is there a range of products or services that fit here?
• What differentiates each of these programs?
• Is this offer going to really meet our needs? How do I know?
• Does this offer make sense in our business reality?
• Is there evidence this purchase will solve our problem or meet our needs?
• Why will this work in our situation?
• Is this purchase going to favorably impact our stakeholders?
• In what ways is the impact of this purchase going to impact our success?
• Is senior leadership on board and championing this purchase?
• After we buy it, will the people use it or implement it?
• Are there changes that will occur as a result of using this?
• In what ways will we be better off profit-wise? People-wise? Client-wise?
• Can you trust the vendor to deliver and provide support?
• Can you tell people how it will all work, step by step?
• Are you clear on the buying process?
• Are you ready to buy now? How do you know?
  

These questions are not the end-all to purchasing, but they will give you some ways to evaluate your purchasing decisions in considering how and what to buy. I would suggest that these criteria would be a good idea in getting information from vendors. Getting them to answer or help you answer the questions should stimulate a lot of valuable interactions.

Enjoy the summer,

From the desk of Mike R. Jay, Master Business Coach
Founder, http://www.leadershipuniversity.com 

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