Making Good Decisions Better by Dr. John C. Maxwell

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. Let’s 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 currently  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 my 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.

Hiding Behind  Information
 Many managers with  exacting standards tend to crave unending stacks of data before rendering a  decision. The more facts and figures they accumulate, the more they require  before feeling ready to decide. Be willing to forge ahead when the results of  the decision will be positive—even if they won’t be perfect.

The DNA of Good  Decision-Making

Evidence—Specific facts  that can be independently verified.

Search for new  information or insight which may affect the decision.

Probe the basis of your  belief. We make decisions based upon our assumptions, but those assumptions are  oftentimes at variance with reality.

Take a hard look at your  areas of expertise, and honestly assess the boundaries of your knowledge. Watch  for overconfidence in yourself and others when you venture outside those  limits.

Test your opinions by  looking for information that challenges your beliefs rather than looking for  information that supports your opinions.

Observation—Direct  experience or understanding of an issue.

Conceptualize. Before  deciding, picture the expected outcomes of your decision and mentally track the  ramifications of your chosen course of action.

Search for examples.  Locate organizations that have faced a similar decision. Evaluate their  experiences to better prepare for your own decision.

Do a test-run. When time  allows, launch and assess a pilot project before fully committing yourself.
 Feedback—Impressions  gleaned from asking others for input about a decision.

The most effective  decisions flow from your ability to ask the right person the right question at  the right time.

As long as you know  where to search for the relevant information, and can verify the accuracy of  what you learn, you will be well-positioned to see all sides of an issue and  make a sensible judgment.

Managing Good Decisions

The first ingredient of  success—making good decisions—has no real value without the second, which is  practicing daily discipline. Look at our society. Everyone wants to be thin,  but nobody wants to diet. Everyone wants to live long, but few will exercise.  Everybody wants money, yet seldom will anyone budget or control their spending.

Most people want to  avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful. What we fail to understand is  that there are two kinds of pain: the pain of self-discipline and the pain of  regret. We avoid the pain of self-discipline because we confront it every day.  Meanwhile, the pain of regret goes unnoticed for days, months, and years, but  when it comes, it marks us with the profoundest disappointment.

Successful people  conquer their feelings of instant gratification and form habits of daily  discipline. They realize that the pain of self-discipline is momentary, while  its payoff yields long-lasting rewards.

Good Decisions – Daily  Discipline = A Plan without a Payoff
 Daily Discipline – Good  Decisions = Regimentation without Reward
 Good Decisions + Daily  Discipline = A Masterpiece of Potential