Two steps for making better decisions

It was my first customer meeting post lockdown last week and more than anything else, I was just feeling good to be in front of our customer/

Mask is the new attire and sanitizer is the new panacea these days, I was equipped with both to make sure that I follow all safety norms and keep myself and others safe.

The great meeting was to be followed by other and I was supposed to follow my colleagues as the location was in some residential colony in Delhi. I started following my teammate’s car who in turn was following Vijender's car who knew the location.

Synchronizing the speed in Delhi traffic is a nightmare and both I and my teammate were slowing Vijender’s speed who was leading the way for ex. by the time he crossed a traffic signal, light turned red and we had to stop forcing Vijender to stop the car at a distance and wait for us to join.

And while I was trying to make up the loss, I suddenly realized that rather than following my teammate's car, I should follow Vijender’s car as he is the one with information. Loosing him out of sight would be a major problem then loosing my other colleague. So Simply put, instead of focusing on two cars, I decided to follow the one which matters the most. Yes, we did reach the destination in tandem, and meetings was done.

However, all this chase again highlighted two very critical factors in decision making both professionally and personally:

1.    Plan & Execute is better most of the time than execute and plan: Like in this case, we all ran for the meeting without any second thought. Instead, we should have grouped up before starting and should have shared the address and landmarks to reach the destination on our own. Avoiding those few minutes of discussions could have cost us a few hours in case of a miss. So, plan & execute, yes in that order only to be more effective & tension free.

2.    Focus on what matters the most, rest all is incidental: For example, in this case, the moment I decided to follow Vijender’s car instead of my colleague’s car, I was able to cut the unnecessary slack and could match the speed better.

Similarly, it is very critical to know the key factor in any situation and all our attention should go to that factor that can make or break things. Rest everyone or everything is just a distraction. So, if you are feeling distracted by focusing on too many things, slow down, identify the anchor point which will solve the purpose.

Focus there and the rest of the distractions will go away. Just remember you must plan & execute first to find that factor that can change the game in your favor.           

And while there are many other things which would make a difference in life, these two habits can give a great head start to be faster in the game.

What do you say?