How Is Your Decision Making?
Decision making is a critical part of running and working in a business. There are many types of business decisions that need to be made at all levels of a business ranging from short term operational decisions to the longer term strategic decisions that will impact the future of the company.
Any decision made can have far reaching implications for a business so how can you ensure that you make good decisions? Here are some tips and areas to consider for better decision making:
Identify the objective. Understanding the business objective and what you are trying to achieve is the starting point for any decision. Consider the business objective, wider perspective and background for the decision.
Use good, relevant, accurate, complete and up to date information. Poor decisions often arise because they are based on information that is incomplete, inaccurate, out of date or not appropriate for the decision being made. Make sure you have good, relevant, accurate, complete and up to date information to base your decisions on.
Access your knowledge, experience and learning. When making a decision consider your accumulated knowledge and experience, as well as your learning from previous decisions you have made.
Properly analyse the information. It is important to properly analyse the information you are basing your decision on as poor analysis can lead to wrong decisions.
Consult with, listen to and involve the right people. Making decisions in isolation is not advisable. Consult with, listen to and involve the right people within and outside your organisation to improve the final decisions.
Be creative. Creativity is an essential ingredient of good decision making. You may not be naturally creative but you can find some ideas as to how to be more creative at Benefit Your Business By Being More Creative.
Identify and evaluate the different options. Decision making can be limited by jumping straight in and not identifying the different options. Explore and identify the potential options and then evaluate the different options to decide the best way forward.
Consider the implications and risks. It is not enough just to consider and evaluate the different options, you should also think about the implications of and risks associated with the decisions you are going to make. This involves thinking forward as to the potential consequences of your decisions.
Validate your assumptions. Decisions are often based on various assumptions, so enhance your decision making by always validating your assumptions.
Be decisive. More damage can be done by not taking a decision or procrastinating about what decision to make than by actually getting on and making a decision, so it is important to not only follow a good decision making process but also to be decisive.
Pay attention to your intuition. Intuition describes the way that you gain access to and use the brain's power without the constraints of logical thinking. Intuition uses information from a wide range of sources including emotional, physical and instinctive and it enables you to quickly make sense of a complex situation at a subconscious level. Further information can be found in our article on Using Intuition In Business. A combination of reason, experience, information and intuition can enhance your decision making.
Beware of your emotions. It is easy to make quick decisions that you live to regret based on just your emotions especially if you are in a very emotional situation. If you are in such a situation be careful of making important decisions.
Communicate your decision. Many good decisions are not effective because they are not properly communicated to all concerned, so make sure you inform all relevant parties of the decision that has been taken.
Don't forget the implementation. Getting to a decision can be very stressful but don't forget that a decision will only be successful if it is properly implemented.
Remember if it is not working out as planned you can change your mind. How often has a what you thought of as a good decision, turned out to be not so good in practice? Don't worry you can always change your mind and make a different decision!
Hopefully the above tips have helped you to consider your decision making in a new light and given you ideas as to how you may want to change your decision making in the future.
If you would like business mentoring, business coaching or stress management support please call Liz Makin on 01780 765270 or email Liz to arrange a free consultation session.
You can also read other business and stress management tips articles that may help you be more effective at work or in your business.
Author: Liz Makin
Published: November 2014
Makin It Happen has a range of personal development online courses to purchase, created by Liz Makin, including anxiety management, communication, resilience, soft skills, stress management, time management and coaching. Liz Makin also provides personalised business coaching, business mentoring and stress management services to business owners, directors, managers and professionals.
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