How to be decisive?

We make decisions everyday. We decide what to eat for lunch. We decide what to wear to work. We decide on whether to pass on that ice-cream and go for a jog instead. Some decisions can wait for a day, some a week, some decisions have to be made in a blink of an eye. Decisions weigh on people's minds. The main difficulty in making a decision is: Will I get blamed if it goes wrong?

Blame is the crux of the problem. We are so afraid of blame. Afraid of making mistakes. Afraid of being told off. As a child, I was often scolded for many misdeeds. Many mistakes, many missteps. I learnt and moved on. However, today, in this day and age, we make decisions hidden behind a committee, behind a review, behind a curtain. Such decisions take time. Loops to no end. And frustrates people all around. In every meeting that I attend, I usually like to mentally and quietly count the cost of the meeting. The hourly rates of the people attending the meeting add up to a significant cost and if the discussions take on a protracted nature, the decision that comes out will be a very expensive decision.

So, companies can learn to save more money by making informed and quick decisions. Can we make decisions faster and not make mistakes? The answer is that it is impossible to be perfect. The best thing we can do is to ensure that we are resilient enough to bounce back and recover. That is a skill that we have to learn.

Effective decision-making comes from a lifetime of learning. We are not innately born with it, but only through a step by step approach, normally determined by life experiences. Most adults recognize that practice can be expensive, inefficient teachers who show more bad behaviors than good; and while the choices clearly differ from one case to the next, many times when another decision-making challenge occurs have little or little value for the experience they have learned from making one critical decision. Many steps can be taken before taking decisions; but only five steps actually need to be taken when making sound decisions.

Do you have an objective?

One of the most efficient methods for taking decisions is to track the objective. Simply by asking yourself, what exactly is the issue to resolve, define the intent of your choice? And why is it necessary to solve the problem? Identifying what is most important to you will help you decide well. If you know the reason why you took a certain action, it would be easier for you to stand there and protect it.

Ask the right and relevant questions. Don't keep asking questions that have no purpose.

It is best to collect evidence that is closely relevant to the problem before taking sound decisions. This will make you understand better what must be done to solve the problem and also help stimulate suggestions for a solution. It is better to list all potential alternatives when collecting information; including those that originally seem silly or unreal. Often ask the advice of people you know or discuss with specialists and consultants, because as you consider the choices for the final decision, it will allow you to find a range of alternatives.

What are the consequences of your decision?

This move may be as crucial as the first step, as it can allow you to decide how it affects you and/or other participants. In this move, you will wonder what the outcome of your decision will be. What are you going to do now? And how will the future be affected? This is an important move since you can review the advantages and disadvantages of the various solutions in the last step. It is necessary also because you want to feel relaxed with all of your choices and future results.

Make your decision

Now that your target has been established, evidence has been collected and the implications measured, the time is right to make a decision and to finally make your final decision. It is important to understand that certain people are really concerned with this step and you have to trust your intuition. This step is important. Although the final judgment may be indeed very uncertain, you must take into consideration how you feel this. Does it feel good, ask yourself? So now and in the future does this decision fit well for you? You should feel confident about the outcome when answering certain questions.

Timing is everything

Early bird catches the worm. You snooze and you lose. Do not delay further. Think about the opportunity costs.

In brief, throughout our everyday lives we all have to take multiple choices. Any of these choices take little effort, whilst others need more time and more consideration before we arrive at an end. Recall, five fundamental steps are required to make successful decisions. Which is the perfect number for these five? Since the comprehension, knowledge and daily practice of a simple strategy are an important aspect of decision-making skills. If more steps are taken than one can count, most people prefer either to miss a measure or to mistake the order of the steps to be taken.

Try it, make it work. It will make life better for you and the people around you.