What do you do if your strategic decision-making skills need an update?

The best practice is a continuous process of market assessment and alignment. Stepping into “get current” means you have been out of touch. It is important for quality decisions and a healthy business to constantly learn and hone your awareness perpetually or you will miss key market signals and be rendered irrelevant harming your business.

Quelques suggestions: - consulter un cabinet pour faire un bilan de compétences spécifiques - Suivre une formation 'executive' - Partager avec des paires - Créer un groupe de travail ou agir au sein du Codir ou autre format selon le format et gouvernance de la société, en proposant de faire un atelier spécifique sur les compétences nécessaires et leurs évolutions en lien avec les décisions stratégiques. - Faire une analyse des "gaps" de compétence

If your strategic decision-making skills need an update, it's essential to invest time in continuous learning and development. Start by analyzing recent trends and shifts in your industry to understand the current landscape. Engage in professional development opportunities such as workshops, online courses, or certifications that focus on modern strategic frameworks and tools. Additionally, seek feedback from peers, mentors, or team members to gain new perspectives on your decision-making processes, also review and refine your strategies to ensure they align with evolving business goals and market conditions, be adaptable and open to new ideas will help you maintain a competitive edge.

Updating strategic decision making skills should be a continuous process and not an event. Learning or updating skills may require an impromptu enrolment into a course if the discovery of the gap indicates that it should be corrected immediately. Otherwise it should be planned for. There are new techniques that must be learned in order to remain abreast of them.

Feeling stuck in decision-making mode? It's time for an upgrade. First, I'd challenge my assumptions and seek diverse perspectives. Second, I'd invest in learning new frameworks and tools, like decision trees or scenario planning. Third, I'd analyze past decisions – what worked, what didn't? This self-reflection is key. Fourth, I'd consider seeking a mentor or coach to provide an outside perspective and challenge my thinking. Finally, I'd practice mindfulness and stress reduction techniques to improve clarity and focus. By continuously learning and refining my approach, I can enhance my strategic decision-making skills and drive better outcomes.

In Management Consulting you are as current as yesterday. Each new assignment comes with new issues to resolve and your concepts and experience can be just another tool to support you. Though, attending Conferances and Workshops helps to get other perspectives the REAL learning can be by Reading Books, Case Studies and serious discussions with Subject Experts. One can also gain by signing a senior professional as Coach.

Failing to keep learning may mean that you are left behind and decision making can become troublesome. Technology on IT is one such area that can provide insight into decision making using the technology.

In my opinion, more than updating, making strategic decisions requires teamwork to comply with a process, which could include the following activities. Full responsibility lies with the strategic level: 1. Conduct a market analysis. 2. Define the appropriate competitive strategies (opportunities and threats vs. strengths and weaknesses). 3. Adapt the strategic guidelines (mission, vision, values, and management policies) so that they serve as a reference at the coordinating and operational levels. 4. Define the strategic objectives. 5. Propose the business model. 6. Propose the strategic map. 7. Generate the strategic plan. Strategic decisions must be supported by technical-economic information expressed in a feasibility analysis.

In the rapidly evolving management consulting industry, continuous engagement with thought leaders and peers, alongside participation in workshops, conferences, and other relevant events, can serve as a catalyst for innovative and forward-thinking ideation.

One thing that I have found useful is to participate in or form a strategy focused group or committee within your organisation thus collaborating with colleagues to tackle strategic challenges and develop solutions collectively. - One can use business simulation games or exercises that replicate strategic decision making scenarios in a risk free environment. - The same can be practiced to set personal goals for different areas of our life, such as career, finance, or health. Developing strategic plans to achieve these goals, including short term actions and milestones. - Use tools like decision tree, cost benefit analysis and scenario planning to analyse and make decisions.

To master strategic thinking and cultivate the confidence needed for high-stakes decision-making, it is essential to first simulate similar scenarios in low-risk environments. By practicing the decision-making process in these controlled settings, we can refine our decision-making skills and build the necessary assurance.

It is pointless to enrol fir a course to upgrade decision making skills if you will not use them. The more you practise the better you become in your judgements. Practises give you experience useful in critical thinking which is good for making reasonable or workable decisions. If it is possible enrol or attend classes that have challlenging management games that you can act with teams to simulate real life situations. Encourage subordinates to critically question your decisions to master the skill of critical decision-making.

Collaboration is a great way to seek diverse tools and feedback for a process. It goes hand in hand with diverse backgrounds as we all have different lived experiences with different skills gained along the way. Asking others for their thoughts in this area not only creates possible effective change, but it allows the chance to challenge different ideas to find the best outcome for all.

As a seasoned professional, I've seen firsthand how collaboration can elevate strategic decision-making. When I engage with diverse perspectives and expertise, it's like a lightbulb goes off - complex issues become clearer, and innovative solutions emerge. By surrounding myself with people who challenge my assumptions and share their insights, I've honed my ability to navigate ambiguity and make informed, forward-thinking decisions. In my experience, collaboration is the key to unlocking a richer, more nuanced approach to strategy - one that drives results and sets organizations up for success.

The need to update one's strategic decision-making skills is applicable if their approach is stagnant despite the changing context. As you can imagine, the approach may not appear drastically different from one month to the next; however, when comparing years and decades, the approach may no longer be socially acceptable or reflective of the best practices that continue to be substantiated by evidence. That is why collaboration is a powerful tool for insight and continuous improvement. Only time will tell, but more often than not, being open to diverse perspectives and adapting tried and true practices lead to intended results. And that is why you have an approach, right?

It takes more than reflection- you don’t know what you don’t know. This is where mentors, mentees, and peer support groups are valuable. Your network and your inner circle can be resilient resources to source knowledge gaps and help execute plans to bridge the gaps.

Reflection is a crucial step in refining your strategic decision-making skills, but it's not just about looking inward. I've found that seeking outside perspectives and feedback is essential to uncovering blind spots and identifying areas for growth. That's why I recommend surrounding yourself with a diverse network of mentors, peers, and team members who can offer valuable insights and support. Regularly scheduled reflection sessions with your inner circle can help you fill knowledge gaps, challenge assumptions, and develop more effective strategies. By combining introspection with external feedback, you'll be able to track your progress, adjust your approach, and stay adaptable in the ever-changing landscape of management consulting.