Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.
Successful people make the right decisions early and manage them daily. In this edition of Leadership Wired, we’ll break down those components by exploring the criteria for making solid decisions and by reinforcing the need to properly manage them day by day.
Making Good Decisions
As a leader, multiple decisions swirl around you and each clamors for time and attention. The first step in successful decision-making is to prioritize the many decisions in front of you. Give yourself time to brainstorm and make a list of each decision you presently face. When you have identified an exhaustive list of decisions, take the following steps to separate the big decisions from the minor ones:
Compare Payoff
Ask yourself, “Which decisions on your list will produce the highest payoff?” Evaluate each in terms of your investment in time, resources, and energy. On a scale of 1 to 3, rate each item on your list as follows:
1 = Most important
2 = Somewhat important
3 = Least important
Consider Your Goals
Ask yourself, “Which decisions are essential to my goals?” To answer this question, you may need to review your primary job responsibilities and remind yourself of the critical success factors driving your performance. Applying the same 1-to-3 scale, rate each decision based on its relevance to your goals.
Delegate
At this point, every item in your log should have two rankings—one for potential payoff and one for alignment with your goals. Add the numbers together. Highlight all entries totaling 2 or 3. These matters clearly require attention.
Focus on the remaining decisions and ask yourself, “Which of these issues must be handled by me and no one else?” More than likely, you’ll determine that many of them can be delegated to others to lighten your load.
Decision Making Traps
Too often, leaders fall into traps causing them to make faulty decisions. They are blind to flaws in their methodology or gaps in their thinking. Here are specific pitfalls that can sabotage your efforts to express yourself wisely and decisively:
Procrastinating
If you dread the finality of taking a stand or calling the shots, you may be tempted to put off the decision. You can fall prey to dozens of avoidance mechanisms to rationalize your unwillingness to decide, including:
• Absence of urgency. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
• Uncertainty. “It could go either way. Since I’m not sure, I’ll reflect on it for a while.”
• Emotional difficulty. “It’s a lose-lose proposition, and someone will be hurt regardless of the decision. Why not postpone the damage as long as possible?”
If any of these comments sound familiar, your challenge is to condense the time frame in which you make your decision. Although you may successfully con yourself into believing that “it can wait,” a cloud of worry will drift over you until you take the initiative to remove it.
Surrendering
Exceptionally hard decisions can deplete your energy to the point at which you finally cave in. If you mentally crumble and degenerate into negative thinking, you’ll magnify the problem to the point where it can haunt you.
Rather than surrender, break a big decision into its components. Isolate particular aspects of the issue, and address the segments bit by bit. Continue >>
RSS
