The Art of Decision Making: Navigating Choices with Confidence

How to Balance Risk, Agility, and Strategy to Make Decisions That Move Your Business Forward

Chocolate or vanilla? Cake or pie? Salty or sweet? Sometimes there are no wrong answers, but a choice still has to be made. It gets even more difficult when these choices are about your business and the consequences have a major impact on your life and future. For founders, whether it be of a start-up or as a solopreneur it becomes even more daunting as you try to wear several hats that may have conflicting POVs (e.g., Growth versus Operations). Decision making is a skill, and bringing in someone with experience and a fresh perspective can be just what you need to make a decision with confidence.

Decision making is ultimately a balancing act, and that is apparent even from the beginning. Gathering information is invaluable, allowing for more accurate forecasting and a fuller picture of the possible outcomes. At the same time, it can be easy to go overboard, overthink the problem and get locked into analysis paralysis. It’s very rare that anything is perfect, so rather than strive for the impossible, work to make the best choice you can using available knowledge and experiences on a feasible time frame. We still end up with something we can be proud of, even if it doesn’t reach mythical perfection. You can always gather more data, but there is a point where you have enough to make a strong decision without becoming stuck overanalyzing. 

Often, we see clients frozen around decisions that require risk tolerance and/or have tradeoffs that internal stakeholders may be locked in debate on. We are experts at risk management, balancing acceptable risk, risks to be mitigated, and truly unacceptable risk. Within organizations risk profiles and what is acceptable can vary among departments and stakeholders with competing goals and ideologies. An acceptable risk for sales may be unpalatable to compliance. By coming in free of bias or ties to interdepartmental dynamics we can suggest a path forward that offers an objective risk management strategy. We provide a nuanced roadmap that can break the stalemates caused by differing opinions of acceptable risk.

The decision making process doesn’t end once the choice is made. Good decision makers are balancing that decisiveness with constant re-evaluation. Sometimes new trade-offs surface that makes the current course untenable. Other times, you may need to stay the course, even when the initial results suggest otherwise. Patience is a virtue, and keeping a level head and avoiding a push to become reactionary is key to keep from giving up on a viable solution too early. These decisions aren’t clear cut, and you need to make a decision with the certainty that you have made the best choice you can with the knowledge you have, while also being prepared to pivot as you learn more. It requires you to be agile and adaptable, ready to adjust as needs, timeline, feasibility, budget and more changes. 

Whenever you’re about to make a major decision, another voice can be invaluable. Trusted colleagues and mentors can provide insights and advice drawing on their experiences to help identify and mitigate risk. An outside perspective can also help. Bringing in an experienced Catalyst, free from preconceptions and internal biases, can give you the right voice to challenge your own assumptions. 

Catalyst Community is comfortable taking on fractional leadership roles where we can step in and take ownership of a CxO position and demonstrate our decision making prowess in real time. And because we consider coaching and knowledge empowerment a core part of our mission, we can guide you and your organization towards those best decision making practices.

We’d love to talk to you about a decision you’re struggling with and how we can help. Book a call to see what expertise and an outside perspective can do.