As business owners, decision making is arguably the most critical part of our jobs. However, many of us don’t look at how we can improve the quality of our decision-making. This can lead to us burning too much time on each decision, taking on too many decisions in a day, or not having enough information to make quality calls.
From my reading and implementation of advice within several articles on the topic, here are three quick tips that can instantly improve your decision-making quality:
1. Limit the number of decisions you make each day.
It is much better to make a few high-quality decisions than many poor-quality ones. As a business leader, your decisions have a massive impact on how the business runs and how your team functions.
I suggest starting with three key decisions per day, and delegate or defer all other activities to others – at least until you have made those decisions!
2. Reverse-engineer the problem.
Now that you have focused on the three decisions you need to make, the next step is to ask yourself one simple question:
“What information do I need to make this decision confidently?”
This will allow you to focus your valuable time on collating only the information that matters. Asking this question also leads to wider consideration of the decision’s context which often improves decision quality as well.
3. Use a trusted sounding board.
We all have trusted advisers and experts in our network, or even within our own company. Please use them as a sounding board for your decision and the rationale behind it. No matter how much we try to cover all bases, sharing with another trusted adviser unlocks new avenues of thought we may not have considered.
Note that sharing with your advisors does not mean you have to take their advice on board – but it gives you the option to take on any good advice, and provides the confidence that your decision is robust.
The above three steps are simple and easy to implement – I use them every day. I’d love to hear from anyone who tries it out themselves – and as always, any tips you have are more than welcome too!
Jase
