3 Decision-making mistakes you may be making and quick the fixes

Are you a decisive decision-maker? 

Decisiveness is the ability to make decisions quickly, even when we don't have all the information. However, I've realized that many leaders don't even realize that they're not decisive. 

Take Kim. Changes are happening upstream that are impacting her team. The team keeps asking how they should implement this with their clients. Rather than deciding, Kim defers the decision to her director; Let's wait to see what Keaton says.

Jasmine tells me she has two vacant positions. She's got money to hire for those two positions. And... She's been deciding what to do about hiring for them for two months.

• Should I fill them as is?
• Should I restructure the org chart and roles first?
  
  

She keeps delaying the decision, waiting to see "how things shake out" over summer.

Anika has an issue with Sage's performance. However, rather than deciding if or how she should discipline Sage, she asks Sage's peer colleague to "help her out" with this task. In essence, she's passing the buck and deferring the problem to someone else to deal with.

The three clients all have problems with decisive decision-making. Rather than making a decision, they are deferring, delaying or trying to dodge making a decision. Perhaps you do one of those too!

Let's look at each a bit closer and how you can "fix" that decision-making "mistake."

Decisiveness is the ability to make a decision quickly, even when you don't have all the information.

Three decision-making mistakes and the fixes
​
MISTAKE # 1 - We defer the decision to someone else

Rather than making a decision that is ours to make, we often try and get other people to decide for us. 
The mistake here is not taking responsibility for making a decision.

The fix: 

1. Acknowledge you don't have all the information. 
2. Note that this may only be a temporary solution until you have more information or get a different decision from above.
3. Decide what to do for now!
   
   

Need help with this? Check out Effectively Navigating Change inside of The Training Library.

MISTAKE # 2 - We delay making a decision 

Rather than making a decision, we keep putting off making that decision. We procrastinate. We hedge. But not just for a little bit... but for a long bit!

The mistake here is that we don't even decide when we will decide!

The fix: 

1. Acknowledge you have a decision to make.
2. Commit to a firm time that you'll make that decision by.
3. Schedule time in your calendar to sit down and strategically make the decision. 
   
   

Need help with this? Check out Decisive Decision Making inside of The Training Library.

MISTAKE # 3 - We dodge the decision altogether

Dodging is when we ignore the fact that there is a decision to be made.

One of the ways we dodged decisions is when it's time to hold somebody accountable. Rather than address the issue, have a performance conversation, take disciplinary action or let them go, we dodged the whole thing. 

• Maybe they'll get better. 
• Maybe things will change. 
• Maybe someone else will address it.

We never actually decide to address an issue. Instead, we continue to step around it, hoping to dodge it completely.

The mistake here is that we don't even acknowledge there is a decision to be made. 

The fix: 

1. Acknowledge that this uncomfortable situation calls on you to make a decision 
2. Write down the decision you need to make, i.e. Decide how to address this employee's performance.
3. Consider what's getting in the way of making that decision and what you need to do to get through it, i.e. I am worried about having a tough conversation with them. I'll need to work on my confidence. 
   
   

Need help with this? Check out How to prepare for a tough talk inside of The Training Library.

Decisiveness is the ability to make a decision in a reasonable amount of time, even when we don't have all the evidence to make the decision the way we'd like to. Decisiveness is not always easy!

To help you out, this week on the podcast, I'm giving you a hack to help you make decisive decisions. Because here's the thing...

Effective leaders make decisions decisively. 

• They don't delay
• They don't defer
• They don't just dodge making decisions. 

They make decisions when they have to, even the hard ones, in a reasonable amount of time, even when they don't have all the answers.

Tune into this week's podcast to learn about the decision-making hack that will help you be a decisive leader!