5 Steps to Making Great Decisions

A leader guides by making decisions…calling the plays that keeps the team moving

That’s why they call them leaders, but frequently it’s hard to know what needs to be done. So many choices, so many factors to consider. When faced with the problem of figuring out what needs to be next, it’s helpful to have some guidelines to minimize the guesswork.

Here’s 5 simple keys to help you make and implement consistent great decisions:

1. Frame the issue and quickly get your options on the table. 
Decision making works a lot like computers. They call it GIGO, garbage in equals garbage out. If you have bad information you’ll make bad decisions. If you have great information you’ll make great decisions.  Do your research. Get input from all key parties involved.

Those closest to the situation have the most information and best instincts. You may not agree with them but you need to know what they are thinking and why. Then unemotionally clarify your choices. Eliminate the obvious. Put the best options down on paper.

2. The Right Time
Timing is everything! The Leader has to watch his team like a hawk! They have to anticipate problems. By doing that they have time to get their options in advance of calling a shot. They have time to not only make the best choice but also pick the best time to implement it. A great decision made too late is a poor decision.

3. Make the call! 
There is thinking time and there is GO time! At some point you have to stop gathering facts because you have ENOUGH facts. Past that point all you are doing is clouding the issue. Too much information and you find too many reasons why nothing will work. Instead of helping you make a better decision it causes you to delay making the RIGHT decision. Just like there’s a time to get your options on the table, there is a time to say ENOUGH - I know what I need to know. Let’s go NOW!

4. Sell the Decision—inspire confidence. 
You can’t just TELL, you must SELL them on it. Any kind of change is going to be disruptive. People don’t like change. It requires extra effort to adjust to new things. Most would rather keep on doing the same things the same way. You need to share with them the consequences of staying on the same course. Let them know the other options you have considered and then show the disadvantages of each. That gives them the frame of reference to buy in and accept your new plan because they understand why this appears to be the best choice.

When you share some of the thought processes with them it allows them to feel part of the team and to really get behind the new direction as opposed to feeling like they are being bossed around for no understandable reason.

5. Implement Immediately and Decisively. 
A mediocre decision executed with enthusiasm will always beat an excellent decision executed half-heartedly. Don’t hesitate, charge. Make the adjustments fast. Don’t leave room for doubt. Lead the way making all the changes involves to get on the new course right away. Put a lot of energy and enthusiasm into the move. Let everyone see you are excited about it and expecting great new results for everyone to come from what you are now doing!

You want to start racing in the direction as fast as possible so you can find out quickly if this is exactly the right call or you need to make any other adjustments. You’ll never know until you get the team moving. As soon as you see the next step that needs to be taken, jump on it so you can keep improving things and give your people better and better chances to be the most productive. 

All teams go through times of change. Making it happen successfully can be a leader's finest hour. More opportunities for success will be created and the team can be re-energized and re-united the in the process!

The #1 Thing a Leader MUST Do

40 ways you COULD go, but which way WILL you go?

Teams ONLY work when they are unified behind a common purpose and common plan.

There’s always lots of opinions and options on anything that needs to be done. Many of them can be successful. But NO team will win when everyone is going in different directions. That’s where the leader comes in, to pull the team together - to call the play.

President George Bush described this as being the “Chief Decider.”

For better or worse, the Leader is the One
Someone has to make the final decision. Someone has to pull the team together and unify them behind one course of action. It takes courage. Know one ever knows the future. There’s always the possibility of failure. If the Leader decides wrong, everyone will know who to blame. That’s why this is the leader’s biggest responsibility.  When the time comes, they must act. They can’t delay or hesitate, they have to choose or the unity disintegrates.

 No MEAL lasts forever and no DECISION lasts forever
Of course the pressure never really let’s up on the leader. If it’s a good decision, positive things will happen and lead to a whole new arena of possibilities…all requiring more decisions. If it’s a bad call, the leader must jump into action and call another play to correct things. 

Leading is like driving a car - you can’t go to sleep.
Teams are like cars, they are always moving and there is always something coming up around the bend. They reach different stages in their growth – the same game plan, activity cycle, products, recognition, etc, never works forever.  If you are a teacher, the same techniques won’t necessarily work all year to keep your students interested, involved and participating. When their attention starts to wander you have to change things up. If you are a parent you know have to constantlly come up with different ideas to keep your kids doing their homework, behaving and doing their chores. When the leader in any arena sees attention, excitement and growth starting to peek IT’S TIME to call a new play. If he/she isn’t PAYING ATTENTION, they won’t know when to act or have any idea how to react. The closer they watch the more reaction time they have before they have to act.

If you’re in charge, don’t be afraid to call the play - the team is depending on you! You may not ever be a perfect leader but if you keep calling plays, you'll keep your team moving.

What 99% of people don’t know about New Year’s Resolutions

Most people start the New Year full of hope.

It’s a fresh start, a clean slate. It’s time to fix things in your life that you’re not happy with. What do people do? They make resolutions. I’m doing to quit smoking, I’m going to lose weight, I’m going to get more sleep, I’m going to start working out. I’m going to spend more time with my family. The list is endless.  

But 99% are headed for failure
It happens every year and with such regularity that it’s become a joke. People almost expect to break their resonlutions even as they’re starting because they know history. Why is it that most fail? What could they do different to set themselves up for success?  

It’s a fresh start
Make a decision not a resolution. The mistake is they make a resolution and not a decision. When you make a decision it is definite you are deciding you’re going to take charge of your life. You’re deciding things are going to change. You are locking in on a goal. You have come to a conclusion about your life and there’s some changes you’ve decided are going to be made. That is a decision. It is non-negotiable. It is not built on a bunch of conditions…if this works out perfect, if that works out perfect—no—it’s going to happen regardless.

A resolution is much weaker
Resolutions are like giving something a try. I’m going to “attempt” to do something. This is a play I’m going to run. If everything works perfectly, if I am able to get myself to do these things then I can get the result. The mistake is focusing on how you’re going to get there. The mistake is making your commitment to how you’re going to get there rather than the fact that you have DECIDED that you ARE going to get there! Resolutions are all about the process rather than the goal so when you commit to a resolution as soon as something comes along in life to interrupt your routine… BAM! You broke your resolution, you give up. 

The critical mistake
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Don’t give up, make an adjustment! Get a new plan, if you, “fall off the wagon,” immediately restart. The trouble with most people starting resolutions is they expect they must follow this rigid new path they’ve set for themselves and as soon as they break the chain they panic and quit.  

Success is getting to your goals  
Once you get there you’ll forget how long it took. It won’t matter. It’s totally inconsequential at that point that you had to make a course correction along the way, you had to regroup and restart your game plan. You had to reschedule, reorganize your time, or any other change you made along the way. The important thing is you will have done it. When you make a decision instead of a resolution, your eye is firmly on your “prize” no how you’re going to get there. Resolutions fail because you focus on the method.

Set yourself up for success in 2012 make decisions not resolutions.

55% of the Time

Does leadership intimidate you?

Are you afraid of making mistakes? Do you find yourself to holding back and passing on opportunities to take promotions because you are afraid of the pressure? Are you afraid of making the wrong decisions?

Relax.

Its not a perfect world.

Look around. Do you see perfection anywhere?

Here’s the secret…

To Be Good in Management You Only Have to Make the Right Decision 55% of the time.

No one is perfect. You aren’t selected because they think you’ll be perfect. Do the best you can.

Make the best decisions you can and you’ll be fine.

If you make some bad calls you’ll learn and improve.

When you get the chance to step up and lead, do it!

No one is expecting you to be perfect.

All Of The People All Of The Time

Sometimes you just have to give them what you think is best. Life can't always be a democracy.When spending time with family and friends the following scene is repeated time and time again.

See if this sounds familiar…

“I’m hungry. Let’s go eat. Where would you like to eat?”

“I don’t care, anyplace is fine with me.””

“Anybody else have any favorites? Anyone? No? Are you sure?”

“We don’t care. It's all good. Let’s just go someplace”

“OK, I have an idea let’s go to …(insert the restaurant name of your choice)”

“Oh no, I hate that place. Last time I was in there…blah blah blah...”

“Well then how about…(restaurant #2)

“I was there last week and the service was terrible and two of us had to send back our steaks. I don’t want to go there.”

“Well how about…” (repeat ad nauseum)

This goes on and on with one after another shooting down every possibility launched until you get tired of it and pick a place yourself and say here’s where we’re going to go.

We had a similar situation show up in business.  

Our manager, Bob Turley, decided to combine our Monday morning manager meeting with a breakfast. He thought it would be more fun for everyone. Of course he was buying. Should have been a great deal for us, wouldn’t you think?

But, no because there was another issue. It seems Bob, being the kind and nice guy that he is, decided he’d let us pick the time. Everyone wanted a time that would work great for them. Plus, some also had children to drop off at school and other obligations. Into this setting came Bob with the innocent question,”What time do you all want to meet?”

The answer to this question never came but we did go through about a six week period of changing from nine, to ten, to eleven, to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and back to Monday again. This merry-go-round ended the morning it appeared we finally picked the perfect time.

It seemed like this issue was behind us.

We were all relieved. We had a great breakfast and meeting but as we were leaving, believe it or not, one knuckle-head actually said…”Bob, this was great but would you mind if next we moved the time back and started 30 minutes later?”

Bob underwent an instantaneous transformation into a business version of The Incredible Hulk. ”The manager breakfast is going to be every Monday at 9am from now on! I am sick and tired of trying to please you guys and if you’re not here at 9 I’ll fire your a**!”

It’s impossible.

As an observer of this series of events I realized more than ever that…you can’t please all the people all of the time.

Another way of saying the same thing is that…a surefire formula for failure is trying to please all of the people all of the time.

The moral of the story: When you’re in charge and working with others remember this—it’s great to be accommodating, but don’t expect everybody to agree because 99% of the time it’s not going to happen. It's not a big deal because its unavoidable.

Someone’s not going to be entirely happy with the choice and there’s no way to avoid it. 

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Do you go out of your way to try to please everyone on your team—and if so, are you happy with the results? What strategies do you use when you know there's no way everyone will be satisfied?

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

If you're not ready to hop onto the train and go, don't. When the time is right, you'll use that ticket.Are you considering a life change?

Thinking about moving to another part of the country? Maybe you feel it's time for a career change. You may be in a relationship that isn't working out—or one that needs to get more serious.

You’re thinking, you are wondering, you are confused.

How do you know when its time to let go? How do you know when its time to move on?

Here’s a clear way to tell what’s going to be your right choice.

When it's time to move on, you will have very little reluctance to leave behind what you have already. Why is that? It's because you are genuinely more excited about what you are headed to than what you are giving up.

It's become more important to you. It means more, in fact in your mind, you are already there. It's time for you to move on!

But, what if you are conflicted? You are…not…quite..sure what to do. In that case the answer is also crystal clear! The answer is that now is NOT the time and it may never be.

You aren’t ready. Only time will tell if you ever will be ready, but certainly not now. While enticing, the new options haven’t quite grabbed you enough

The fact that you are wondering tells you the new opportunities don’t really mean as much to you as you might have first thought. They have SOME appeal but not enough to pry you away from what you have already established.

When the time is right for you to move on, you’ll know, because you will go—excited about what you are headed towards—and not looking back over your shoulder at what you left behind.

Follow Your Instincts

Body language takes precedence over the words someone says. Do you think you'd like to work with this guy?Some of the biggest decisions you’ll make in life are related to your job, your career. Where are you going to work? What are you going to do?

The best advice I ever heard on this subject came from Art Williams. He said to follow your instincts…

"If your instincts say to you, "I like these people, I like what they do, I believe I could get excited about this, this is my kind of company" — then and only then should you join us. If you don't have those feelings, stay away — for you will only be disappointed."

Of course you’ll want the facts. You want to check out the company. You want to get the details of their offer. But beyond that you want to pick up on the intangibles. What is the body language you are picking up on? That’s the biggest indicator. 

What is your gut telling you? Are you starting to naturally get excited about what you are hearing, who you are meeting and the possibilities you would have there?

Get the information. Ask your questions. Consider it carefully.

Then finally, trust your gut!