How to get better at Making Decisions
Decision making skills are important in every element of your life, but none more so than at work, where a wrong decision can cost your company business and you could lose your job as a result. Some people are naturally more apt at making decisions than others; nevertheless, there are some ways that even a vague person can sharpen their decision making skills so that they are able to do their job to the best of their ability. Here are some of those ways.
Be organised
You can’t sharpen your decision making skills if you aren’t organised. When making decisions you need to have all the information at your finger tips. If you’re the sort of person who forgets things easily, or who remembers things, but then can’t find the necessary documents to back them up, start by organising yourself. Make sure all your documents are filed away safely and that you know exactly where to get hold of them. Different members of your team will be responsible for different projects, so again, make sure you know whom to ask about what. It will save you a lot of time; time that can be used for making decisions.
Be in the rightframe of mind
There are times when you have no choice but to make a decision within a split second. However, the majority of the time, you will have a distinct time-frame. That means if you are having a bad day, you have the luxury of putting off making decisions. Learn to recognise when your mind is at its clearest. It may be a certain time of day, or a certain day of the week. Then again, it may be after your children have started the school term, or once your spouse has received the results of their hospital test. Once you learn to know when you are in the right frame of mind, you will be well on your way to better decision making.
Recognise what is important
There are some decisions that are more important than others, but sometimes it is not easy to work out which are the most important. This can particularly be an issue if you have a persuasive colleague who makes you believe that their task, for which they need you to make a decision, is more important than everyone else’s. You need to learn to put all the rhetoric behind you and see things as they really are. This involves getting to know your colleagues and which of them tend to exaggerate. You also need to know the projects well and weigh up what they mean for your organisation.
Hone your listening skills
Not every manager is a good listener. However, listening is a vital aspect of decision making. If you aren’t prepared to listen to what people say, you cannot possibly filter out what is important. You may well have colleagues who bore you to tears because they are so slow at getting to the point and you therefore shut them up before they have had time to say their piece. Get into the habit of taking a deep breath and waiting for them to get to the end of their speech. It may just be the vital link for your decision making. If it isn’t, then you have merely wasted a few minutes of time.
Practice
As with all things, you cannot become good at decision making unless you practice on a regular basis. There may be times when it is easier to push the decision on to someone else, or to put it off until it can no longer be ignored. Yet you will find decision making much less painful if you force yourself to do it on a regular basis. You can even practice it at home, with something as simple as what to have for dinner, rather than allowing your children to make up your mind for you. Once you get into the habit of making decisions, it will become second nature and won’t be such a chore.
Analyse yourgut feelings
In the initial stages of honing your decision making skills, you will probably find that you rely on instinct as much as anything else. There is a reason for this; your instinct is often right. However, if you want to always be right, you need to use your gut reaction to better effect by weighing up the pros and cons before you make your final decision. That way you are following your instinct, but not without backing it up by fact. The faster you are able to weigh things up, the faster you will be able to make your decision; but make sure that you don’t miss things out in your hurry.
Decision making skills are something that can always be improved, no matter how good or bad you think you already are. With time and practice, you will be confident that you know what you are doing to the best of your ability.
