Let’s face it, Fear creates self-deception. What passes for a great decision is sometimes a fear-driven decision in disguise. A fear-driven decision is one where, because of the risks involved, you are afraid to do what you know deep down is right.
Matilda was part of a merger. She knew that her job was going to be extinct. The Human resource manager had a conversation with her. Fifteen months later, she had done nothing about changing jobs or asking about other options within the Company. She is jobless, trying to reignite her career.
Job works in the Procurement Department. He leads a tram of seven. As everyone knows, this department works with timelines and principles. Job is afraid of making the wrong decision, even after vetting suppliers. What does he do? He either waits for the last minute to make a decision or looks to the team to make an executive decision for him. This practice has cost the Company money and time in hiring the wrong service providers.
Gloria is a recent addition to the role of Finance Manager. Her predecessor was fired for being fraudulent. She knew the weight of responsibility coming into the office. Having been mentored well, she shoulders the responsibility when things go wrong and gives her team credit when things go right. And for such her team respects and trusts her.
The average adult makes roughly 35,000 decisions each day, encompassing both small and large choices. This includes everything from what to wear to major life decisions, and even minor ones like what to eat for lunch or how to respond to a text message. While the exact number can vary, the consistent finding is that we make a substantial number of choices throughout the day. This high volume of decisions can contribute to “decision fatigue,” leading to feelings of overwhelm and potentially impacting the quality of our choices.
In leading your life, the greatest gift you have is to decide. Unfortunately, many people suffer from indecision. This is worse if that person is a leader. The ability to decide—to somehow come to a decision, even in the absence of perfect information (and there will never be perfect information), is an essential attribute of well-functioning teams and individual leaders.
Here are some principles for being decisive:
- Refuse to suffer from analysis paralysis
Analysis allows us to say “maybe,” “may be not” Judicious use of analysis is good, as long as you don’t fall prey to “analysis paralysis.” There are seldom enough facts or data to eliminate all risk or to make a decision based solely on those facts. Furthermore, all business analysis is dramatically affected by your assumptions. Two people looking at the same set of facts will often come to entirely different conclusions about those facts. Why? Because they come at those facts with different assumptions.
2. Follow your gut.
Admittedly, some people are uncomfortable with intuitive decisions. Intuition seems unscientific and irrational, and its use is awkward for those who are not well practiced. Yet the most effective decision makers use a combination of hardheaded analysis and intuition. You intuition-if not based in fear, knows something you don’t know.
There is no such thing as an unintuitive person; everyone has intuition. The difficulty comes in recognizing and using it. What does it take to effectively use your intuition? Here are a few suggestions. Go right to the heart of any problem or decision. Don’t let a myriad of data, analysis, options, and probabilities overwhelm you and push you into catatonic indecision.
A useful technique is to distill a decision down to its core and ask a simple question: Does your gut say “Yes” or “No”? Over time, you’ll develop a finely tuned sense for what your intuition is saying. This “sense” has a special quality to you—you just know if something is right. One effective tool for developing this “sense” is to closely observe your internal reactions to the decisions you make.
3. Consult others
People are more committed to decisions that they have a hand in shaping than to those that are decreed from above. How much should you involve others in your decisions? Involve everyone to debate an issue and know when to make a decision based on what you have received from the team. Its called leading not consensus.
No matter how smart you are, it’s impossible to have a 100% hit-rate with decisions. A good number of your decisions will be sub-optimal; that’s just the nature of life. If you wait until you’re absolutely sure before making a choice, you’ll most certainly bog down in a quagmire of indecision.
