Leadership Dilemma - Decision Making When Everythings Seems To Be Good

"Siva, I have a huge decision making problem. All the simple, black and white questions never make it to me. One of them in my management team would anyways answer them. Decisions that require careful evaluation of choices without all facts and information always ends up on my table. The biggest problem is that all the available choices would look perfect, and that's when I struggle."

"How do I make correct decisions in these times of dilemma?" asked a Senior Leader of a manufacturing organisation recently during our 1-2-1 coaching session as part of our Leadership Mastery Intensive Program.

As a Corporate Leader and Manager, how often do you get to make decisions?

The obvious answer is "all the time".

Whether prioritising deliverables, allocating budget, assigning projects, delegating tasks, implementing a new strategy, hiring the right candidate, the choices you make have a direct impact on your team's, department's and organisation's success.

In reality, decision making is not easy. With very high stakes involved, there is a huge risk of wrong decisions that particularly make many leaders not very comfortable and quick in making key decisions.

Here are a few key strategies that will enable you to make effective decisions especially in times of leadership dilemma.

1. Accept probabilities instead of certainties

It's impossible to find an X or Y solution for most of the highly complicated problems you face as a leader in today's business environment. The Real-world out there is not digital - 0 or 1. It's analogous in nature. There are infinite possibilities between 0 and 1. You will no way find a solution that's perfect and certain all the times.

So, stop looking for certain and perfect decisions to be made. Start accepting the probabilities. Be comfortable with the fact that you will not be making 100% correct decisions all the time.

2. Involve your team in decision making

Getting your team involved while making crucial decisions will help you in "critically evaluating" all the available choices without being biased to one of the choices. You will be able to tap into more diverse thoughts and opinions from your team and will be able to bring in a more creative solution.

It's not that you've to be the biggest brain in your team. Have people who are better and smarter than you who also will disagree with you. Involving your team in the decision-making process will help you identify your own blind spots that will help you in enhancing your self-awareness.

3. Ask simple questions

As a leader, you don't have to know everything and have answers to all the questions. One of the smart ways to understand things in a deeper sense is to ask simple and basic questions. The more fundamental questions you ask, you are not just reaching to the bottom-most layer of the problem, you are also encouraging people around to think deeper.

4. Look for contrarian views

It's quite possible you always go for a consensus-based decision. However, what will happen is - discussions will take shape and go in the same direction that everybody is most likely to agree. People with opposing views might stay quiet as they will be against most of the people in the room.

Allow your contrarian thinkers to frankly share their perspectives before being pushed down by the majority thinking. Your ability to go against the grain and ask tough questions is an invaluable quality you could have as a decision-maker.

5. Take some quick breaks to deepen your thoughts

Tough decisions need deep thinking. You cannot really deepen your thoughts sitting inside that board room or the conference room where you are having those serious discussions with your team. Just step out once in a while for a quick lonely stroll,

You've to create those thinking spaces in order to think deeper before taking that big decision. You don't have to plan these breaks as part of your schedules, it could be as simple as a tea/coffee break or lunch break or a quick walk. May be complete all the detailed discussions and just push the final decisions making process alone to the next day. Spending quality time with your loved ones and family could help you declutter your mind and restore your thinking much better the next day.

We are all constantly evaluating options for various decisions in our life. We are always thinking of what to do, how to act, which one to choose carefully analysing and weighing each choice. It will be truly exhausting to take decisions all the time.

The best we can do is understand that nothing is going to be a perfect answer in this world of uncertainties and dynamic changes. It's going to be tough, complicated and demanding.

After all, that's why this world is an interesting place.

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Sivakumar Palaniappan is a Professional Speaker, Consultant and Coach on Mindset Strategies. He works closely with organisations and managers in nurturing a Leadership Mindset in helping them grow their People, Business and Profit. Siva is genuinely passionate about assisting people in transforming themselves into inspiring leaders.

More about Siva @ www.sivaspeaks.com.