The good the bad and the ugly of effective decision making.
As a business manager, you will be faced with difficult decisions every day. Effective decision making is vital to the business’s objectives. You need to learn good decision-making skills, which can be difficult to implement at the best of times, as you are constantly under pressure at work.
There are many examples of difficult decisions in the workplace, as a business manager you need to overcome challenges and take the personal aspect out of your decision-making process, to do what’s best for the business’s needs.
Take a step back look at all the angles
Effective decision making, especially in a business environment can only be achieved with a clear head. Sometimes you need to back away from the situation at hand and place it in context for yourself. The decision-making process needs to be rationalised from a cool and collected stand point. Take a back seat, breathe and analyse the problem in order to communicate an effective solution, resulting in good decision making.
Don’t just rely on your intuition to make important decisions
As a business manager, you need to look at your world holistically. No one is born with good decision-making skills, this is a unique tool that must be honed and perfected over time. What have you learnt from your mistakes in life? If they have taught you anything you would know that evidence should guide you for effective decision making.
E.B.M or the evidence-based management approach is an essential part of decisions in business management. People tend to lean towards their gut feeling and make impulsive decisions based on what they see at first sight, rather than digging deeper to uncover the real facts. Use scientific evidence and data within the business strategies for an overall effective decision-making process.
Use outsiders perspectives to challenge the status quo
You must trust your own judgement and have the courage of your convictions for effective decision making in the business world. That being said; getting an outsider’s perspective can help you challenge your thoughts and create an objective standpoint to which you can reason with and challenge for a proficient decision-making process.
This will challenge your own status quo and will help you think outside of the box, developing a problem solving mindset that can help you in many areas of an organisation as a top business manager.
Mitigate risk for effective decision making
There are numerous examples of difficult decisions in the workplace, yet as a business manager, one aspect of running an organisation that you can never over-plan for is your business risk. These can always be learnt from some of the greatest entrepreneurs.
You need to establish clear plans and mitigate risk effectively in your decision-making process. This is one of the most difficult parts of effective decision making as you need to play the devil’s advocate all the time. You constantly need to be on the lookout for what can go wrong and you need a contingency plan should the potential threat strike unexpectedly.
