Ineffective decision making has significant implications for company productivity. On average, respondents spend 37 percent of their time making decisions, and more than half of this time was thought to be spent ineffectively. For managers at an average Fortune 500 company, this could translate into more than 530,000 days of lost working time and roughly $250 million of wasted labour costs per year. - McKinsey
As the survey by McKinsey linked to above shows, a considerable amount of time and money is lost through ineffective decision making. A lack of confidence in their decision making can hinder many a leader’s productivity and performance.
If you are newly promoted to a much bigger or senior role, making business critical decisions may fill you with dread. Ruminating over what is the right decision to make can leave you anxious and doubting your ability to do the role. With this self-doubt may come a big dose of imposter syndrome, and you’re probably telling yourself that ‘they’ are going to realise that appointing you was a big mistake.
This may negatively impact your ability to speak up assertively and perform well in meetings. You think you have made the right decision, put your suggestion across, only to have it shot down from those in the room who ace speaking off the cuff.
As someone who is introverted, because you find it difficult to speak off the cuff, you then question yourself and doubt yourself, being swayed by the views of those with a more dominant personality and who are quick to speak on the spot. You fail to realise that there is nothing wrong with your preference for processing your thoughts, and then speaking your mind.
If any of this describes you, pause for a moment, take a deep breath, and let’s look at things from a more helpful perspective, using an anonymised example from one of my client case studies:
Case Study
X was recently promoted to the c-suite. It was their first time in an executive role. Having been a head of department for several years, they had become confident about the decisions they made.
In this new, bigger role, they needed to make some important decisions within a brief time of starting. They were fearful of making the wrong decision and the consequences of what would happen if they did.
The uncertainty of what decision to make was stressful for them, at a time when they were still finding their feet. They were still developing and nurturing relationships with both internal staff and stakeholders.
They had become overwhelmed by it all, and it was taking its toll on their confidence in their ability to do their role. If they were to let things continue like this, not only would it negatively affect their performance, but it would also lead to a lack of confidence that others had in them as a leader. Not to mention emotional and physical effects from the stress of the situation.
Because of how X felt, they over magnified the problems and were being hard on themselves. Helping them to take a step back and look at the situation more rationally, helped them to put things into perspective.
Putting things into perspective
We explored what the worst possible outcome was, and what X could do if this was to happen. By mitigating it in their mind, X was able to see that if the worst was to happen, they had choices. This helped to make the situation less fearful.
I could see that X had already made some strategic decisions since being in role and had confidently stood their ground when faced with opposition. So, I asked X what the things were that they felt confident making decisions in, and what were those with which they were struggling.
After reflecting, they realised that since starting their role, they had confidently made some key decisions and had communicated these assertively. The reason they felt so confident about these was due to them having considerable experience and knowledge in those subject areas. This was something they had been doing for years.
The two areas where they were indecisive, were areas that they didn’t have previous experience in. If you are struggling to make decisions about areas where you lack previous experience, making a decision is not going to come as easy as something that you have had experience with.
Breaking it down like this made it easier for X to see what was needed for them to become confident in making decisions about those things with which they were struggling. Because they had become so anxious about it, they were unable to view their situation rationally.
As a result, X was overly focused on those two areas which magnified the fact that they were indecisive. They had totally ignored that they had already confidently made some key decisions that would steer the direction of the organisation.
This is something that many people do. They become so consumed by what’s not going well that they forget all the good they have done. Whereas a shift in perspective can make that which isn’t going so well less overwhelming.
Emotions can hinder effective decisions
When we make decisions, we do so based on a combination of previous experience, knowledge, evidence, data, gut instinct, and possible other factors. Knowing that the more experience and knowledge you have, the more confident you are making decisions, what can you do to bring yourself up to speed?
It might be the case that the experience can only come with time and acquiring the knowledge may be easier. What evidence do you need to help you reach the best decision? What evidence is available? Whose views do you need to solicit to help you reach your decision?
Being less emotionally charged, and by looking at the situation rationally, X was able to see that the evidence and data were there to support her gut instinct. They were able to identify the relevant people whose views they could solicit. And they were able to think rationally and make the decision that would be the best decision for the organisation, as opposed to that which would be more comfortable for them emotionally.
If you are a newly promoted leader, there will be things you need to make decisions on that you may not have previously had a lot of experience in. Letting yourself become anxious about it, will hinder your ability to view the situation rationally, and your emotions may get in the way of you making the best decision.
First published on LinkedIn.
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