Do you struggle to make the right decision most of the time? If so, then you’re not alone, making decisions can be one of the most challenging things a human can do. There are things you can implement into your decision making strategy to increase your odds of being right more often than you’re wrong. If you consistently make the wrong decision, then this is unfortunately going to impact your life, it will make the odds of you being successful far less and it will also effect how other people around you trust the decisions that you make.
The important thing to remember about making decisions, is that the only important thing to focus on is making the correct decision, it doesn’t matter if it’s you or someone else who makes it, because what you care about at the end of the day is the result, it’s not about ego.
What I have learnt over the years, is to look at both the forest and the trees, to tie ideas together by linking them to both perspectives, this means you consider your options based both on the current situation and your future plans. The challenge can be getting everyone else on board with this thinking, which is the reason getting experts in on the decision making process is important. If you include several experts in your decision making, taking into consideration their opinions, they will then understand your perspective when you make the final decision.
Gather Knowledge
Most people make decisions based on the information they currently have, combined with emotion. This is not the most effective strategy for decision making. It leaves you open to potential errors and often the information you currently have, is vague and somewhat inaccurate.
The first thing I recommend, is you research what you need to know to make a good decision, before you start thinking about it, or asking other people their opinions, you go away and do your research, learn as much as possible about the subject to inform your own opinion. Then once you have done this, it’s time to speak with other experts in the field, and get a good understanding of their opinions. If you find the experts have opinions which differ from your own, there is a good chance the expert is correct, especially if multiple experts give a similar opinion. Based on the knowledge you had previously learned you can ask questions to determine if you belive your original opinion was correct or if the experts is. If you determine that you are correct, it’s important to justify your reasoning behind this thinking before going ahead.
Often, you will find that the experts give a very good opinion, which may sway your opinion, this is a good thing, because it means you have learnt something very powerful, and instead of going down the wrong path, you have in fact made a very wise decision which is more likely to lead to a successful outcome.
Ask questions
The most powerful tool you have when it comes to making decisions, is asking questions. It’s only by asking good questions that you will get great answers capable of directing you in a good direction. Have you had someone ask you very basic questions in the past, where you feel your answers will make no difference, this is because you felt your answer was too vague based on the question you were asked. If however someone asks you a good question, we often feel like we’ve offered real value.
Try to always ask the type of questions which challenges people to think, and to explain their opinion logically for you to understand their perspective. This is the best way to improve your decision making process.
The final way to increase your success, is to leave decision making up to someone else. For example, if you have a business partner, who has proven to be more prudent than yourself consistently, then it makes sense to allow them to make decision about the business. This doesn’t mean you’re not a valuable asset to the business, it simply means your skills are elsewhere, remember too many chiefs and not enough Indians is not smart.
