Decision Making: Utilizing effective processes to make decisions.

We've previously discussed the importance of hiring for solid decision making skills. Now we turn to improving your decision making. How are your decision making skills? 

I know that I struggled in my early adult years with this skill. My first breakthrough came when a friend offered that very few decisions carry such dire consequences that they can't be undone. He said, the best approach was to gather enough information to support your decision and then make a decision. If that decision turns out to be wrong, you can make another decision. I've also used a decision making process I learned from one of Donald Trump's first books, Trump: The Art of the Deal. In the book, Trump explained that he approached many decisions by trying to decide the worst possible outcome of the decision. Then, assuming he could live with that worst possible outcome, he went forward with the decision.

Decisiveness is a critical skill to success in business and life. Here is a process we recommend to our executive coaching clients:

1. Don't make a hasty decision unless the situation requires an immediate response, then following these steps, revisit your decision once the crisis is ended.
2. Think on paper--Begin by writing out the question/thing to be decided and then determining if there are any underlying issues that will affect the decision.
3. Question your assumptions (and possible bias) and consider the consequences of a decision.
4. Determine what result you are striving to achieve (success) or avoid.
5. Brainstorm to identify as many solutions as you can, and then choose the best one.
6. Don't get bogged down in INDECISION--Make a decision and then monitor to see if the decision achieved the desired result.
7. If your decision turns out to be the wrong one, be prepared to say, "I was wrong, I made a mistake, I changed my mind." And then make another decision.

We will make the wrong choices and decisions from time to time. The key is to minimize the expense of those wrong decisions, quickly admit your mistakes and quickly change course for an alternative decision/solution.