Leadership: Drilling-down Decisions

Leadership is not always easy to accomplish and truly the decisions that we make are not always as simple to do without consequences or regrets.  Truly Thomas Paine’s quote, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way” is not a simple thing to accomplish.

Do you wrestle with indecision when all options seem to be the best?  Or, are you hasty to make a decision only to find out later that you were a little too quick resulting in wrong decisions being made?

Some of us are better at simply deciding and moving on whereas others belabor points over and over for fear of making the wrong decision.

Some effective leadership pointers on decision-making include:

Make a Pro/Con list

-Divide a piece of paper in half and list all of the pros and cons on each side.  Assign a weight to each bullet point.

–Pointer:  Make sure to put your ideas down with pencil and paper.  It is so much easier to see a clear choice when you have your ideas out of your head and in print.

Weigh logic against emotion

-If you are a Type A personality, it is said that you only make decisions based on logic where as if you are a more laid-back Type B personality you tend to lead or make decisions on feelings.

–Pointer:  Do not discount your emotions.  We are human and it’s okay to listen to that inner voice more often than not.

Balance time spent and energy expended

-Weigh whether the desired outcome is a $10 decision or a $1000 decision.

–Pointer:  Remember don’t waste time or sweat the small stuff.  Use your time to deliberate on the things that are most important to your desired outcome.

Drill-down to the key alternatives

-Create a checklist of your crucial and relevant points and don’t deviate from that.

–Pointer:  Zero in on identifying the critical issues at hand.  Decide if each issue is an A-list factor.  If not, discard it from your options.

Determine the here and now

-Adopt the habit of thinking in current event terms.

–Pointer:  Often times we spend too much time mulling over “what ifs” or rehashing the past.  Decide and move on, after all, tomorrow is always a new day.

Peggy P. Edge © 2015