Make the decision right!

As a woman manager, I often wish I had more time in my day.  One of the reasons that we struggle with time management is the inability to make decisions effectively.   The truth is, we can waste a lot of time pondering decisions.  The better we understand effective decision making, the more we can free up time to utilize how we wish. 

The antidote to confusion and overwhelm is making a decision.  Once a decision is made, you can move on.  The confusion subsides.  The overwhelm is cleared.  We are always making decisions whether we realize it or not, but it is important to choose our decisions intentionally so that we are setting the direction we want to go. 

So what goes into a making a "solid" decision?  This article explores some of the components of effective decision-making.

1. Establishing Criteria

It is important to understand the criteria ahead of time on what you are basing your decision.  This is about directing your mind to focused points of consideration.  Without establishing criteria, you could be going over a myriad of criteria to no final conclusion.  This results in your mind spinning about the decision to be made. 

2. Allotting Time

Parkinson's Law suggests that your work will expand to fill the time allotted for it's completion.  This concept can also be applied to decision-making.  You will more often than not, give yourself as much time as possible to make a decision.  What does this create?  You end up wasting precious time overanalyzing and overthinking various possibilities and/or outcomes that may or may not be realized.  If you give yourself a set amount of time to make the decision, you free up valuable time that would otherwise be spent ineffectively. 

3. Trusting the Decision

There could be a multitude of criteria that you could consider and your mind will want to go over each and every one, possibly the same criteria over and over again.  Trusting yourself with the established criteria for making your decision will not only serve you for the current decision at hand, but for future decisions throughout your lifetime.

4. Interpreting the Outcome of the Decision

This component of decision making is all about what you are making the outcome mean about you.  When we look at the outcome of our decision-making as learning, it becomes less personal.  For example, instead of interpreting it as a wrong decision and by extension  making it mean that there is something wrong with us, we can look at the outcome as data, information, we can learn from.

5. Being Authentic

While you may want to consider the opinions of others in your decision-making, often we give their positions more importance than our own.  It may be because we are afraid of making the "wrong" decision according to others, or we don't want to face conflict of those that may disagree with us.  Being true to ourselves allows us to be comfortable with the decision taken even if may not be the popular opinion.  Often, it's the criteria assessed that allows others to understand the decision taken.  For example, I have found in the past that others disagreed with some of my decisions until I explained my thought process.  Once they understood the method of arriving at the decision, some even went from disagreement to agreement!

Effective decision-making takes practice.  It's like building a muscle.  You need to exercise the process over and over again to find the "sweet spot."  When we realize that decision-making takes us out of confusion and overwhelm, it is a compelling reason to put it into practice.  We are wasting precious time "thinking about things" when we could be living our lives.  We cannot guarantee the outcome of any decision as the evaluation of the outcome will always be past-facing.  It's about doing our best with the knowledge and information we have available to us.  I always go back to the wise words of one of my mentors.  "It's not about making the right decision.  It's about making the decision right." 

About me

My name is Shawna Lettroy.  I am a Stress and Burnout Prevention Coach.  I help overwhelmed women managers break through their individual challenges, especially in times of worry, anxiety and stress, to reignite their authentic spark and lead more empowered lives.

Join The Women Managers' Movement e-mail community where I share helpful tips and strategies, including my experiences, to help you deal with your everyday challenges with stress and burnout.

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