What to Do When You Find Decision Making Challenging

Decision making is one of the most important skills a leader needs to possess. A key determinant in how successful you are as a decision maker is your ability to communicate with and influence others.

There’s no getting around it that making decisions can be quite challenging – from mounds of data to review, inclusion of others (or not), knowing your audience, naysayers, fear of making the wrong decision, and fear of being called out on your decision. Need I say more?

Decision making can be difficult, yet every leader needs to develop their ability to do it wisely, efficiently and in a timely fashion.

I’ve worked hard to perfect the art of decision making. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to discuss the topic with Steve Caldwell at Manager Mojo. We got together on his podcast to discuss the critical areas you should consider for improving your decision making process. There is no perfect process, and usually there are no perfect decisions, but this podcast will help you get clear on making your process quicker and simpler.

Listen to the podcast here:

The process I share on the podcast is the basis for my latest book, The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved. I also teach these methods in our Structured Thought & Communications and Deliberate Decision Making courses.

If taking courses by video is your thing, I’ve got that covered too. You can also watch my course Executive Decision Making on lynda.com, which includes a free chapter on assessing risks. Watch the course introduction here:

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Steve. I certainly enjoyed speaking with him. I encourage you to give the tools we discussed a try and see how it impacts decision making in your organization.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Steve Caldwell is an executive mentor and coach to managers and leaders who desire to excel in their career and become the leader others want to follow. Steve is a leadership expert, host of the Manager Mojo podcast and author of the book Manager Mojo – Be the Leader Others Want to Follow (www.ManagerMojo.com).

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Photo: decisions ( #cc ) by Martin Fisch