To be successful in business you need to be decisive!
As an entrepreneur, the only person to blame for a bad decision is the person looking back at you in the mirror. You’ve heard the expression ‘The Buck Stops Here!’ If you want to have others look to you for guidance and advice you need to stop the blame game and learn to make and own your own decisions!
So if you aren’t already a decisive person you need to develop the ability to make management decisions. This will demonstrate to your clients, co-workers and competitors that you are serious about what you do and that you are a leader! It tells them that you are the one to follow and that you will lead the way for them. Even if the decision you made turns out to be a bad one you still will have shown the ability to make an important decision and guide those around you. Learning when to walk away from a decision is equally important to business success and is not something to be ashamed of.
[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions! ~Mark Twain[/tweet_box]
So how do you become a decisive leader?
- Recognise your own strengths and weaknesses.
- Become adept at self-management.
- Focus on results and identify your role in those results.
- Learn how to take criticism from your own analysis and from outside sources.
- Make it hard for people to cope without you – become indispensable to them.
Learn how to way up your choices. This is key to your decision-making process and vital to establishing yourself as the leader of choice.
- Decide what you need to accomplish and evaluate whether the decision you are making will point you in the right direction.
- What’s the worst that can happen? Can you live with this worst-case scenario?
- Is it a ‘gut’ decision? Do you trust your intuition? Beware of making a decision purely on emotional factors.
- Decide in haste – repent in leisure! Sometimes it pays to step back and take some time to look at your options.
- Take advice! Making a decision is easier with all the relevant information at hand.
- Own your decision! Once made – stick with it!
- Learn how to identify a bad decision and know when to call it quits!
It’s unlikely that you will transfer from a non-decisive person to a decisive one overnight but you can start to change your mindset to train yourself to make (and own) your decisions. Start to develop good habits to help you become the leader that everyone looks to for advice and in doing so you will see your business take off!
How hard is it for you to make decisions? Do you have any tips that help you in the decision making process? Please leave a comment below.
