How to become a better decision maker

by chess master on 18/01/10 at 7:13 pm

Most mangers find deci­sion mak­ing an inescapable task. Deci­sion mak­ing is some­thing that is made every moment in our lives, and most of the time we take respon­si­bil­ity on our actions. But when if comes to the office pol­i­tics envi­ron­ment, this changes. staff mem­bers see the man­ager who takes the deci­sion as the major per­son who take the  respon­si­bil­ity .aver­age mem­bers in the office will try not to take respon­si­bil­ity thus not to make decisions,

An office sur­vivor must mas­ter this basic abil­ity, which in the long run makes him growth.

The qual­ity if deci­sions deter­mine the suc­cess of a man­ager effort. If you want to become a qual­ity deci­sion maker, par­tic­u­lar when the big deci­sions, here are the some tips that can help.

1.What is a deci­sion making?

Deci­sion mak­ing is part of a prob­lem solv­ing. There would be no deci­sion to make if there were no prob­lems to solve. Deci­sion mak­ing is that com­po­nent of the prob­lem, solv­ing process that fol­lows analy­sis of the prob­lem and is fol­lows, in turn by action to carry other decisions.

2.Focus on impor­tant matters

Try not to spend too much time on small mat­ters. Look for the impor­tant ones that must receive your full atten­tion. Here are few examples:

• IT world: leave code reviews to oth­ers, while try to focus on high level architecture.
• Adver­tis­ing world: focus on new mar­ket­ing cam­paign strate­gies while leave the deci­sions of the logo brand­ing to others.

Usu­ally we ask the fol­low­ing ques­tions while we are in the process of the analy­sis of the prob­lem before we make a decision

• How close is the deadline?
• What are the con­se­quences of poor deci­sion in this problem?
• Who is affected by the decision?
• Is the deci­sion is reversible?

Answers to such ques­tions will also help to clar­ify the deci­sion to be made

3.Avoid mak­ing snap deci­sion or should I?

From our youth we are taught to think twice and more before mak­ing a deci­sion. While 95% of times this is the cor­rect method of the deci­sions mak­ing there are sit­u­a­tion where quick deci­sion. Although it not may be to best one it will help you improve you positions.

in terms of office pol­i­tics games, take as much time as you can to reach a per­fect deci­sions although, tak­ing really quick deci­sion some­time send strong reflec­tion of the man­ager thus mak­ing him looks bet­ter, fiercer, and a strong leader in the eyes of the man­age­ment. Quick deci­sion, which may not bring the best con­se­quences are some­time call “army bat­tle ones”. As an office sur­vivor lead­ing other employ­ees in that bat­tle zone after tak­ing short time, if you suc­cess, you will lever­age your posi­tion really fast.

Remem­ber that poker player or a bas­ket­ball team coaches, in the heat of the game, takes quick deci­sion in a snap of time. There are even sit­u­a­tions where chess play­ers need to make 2 sec­ond decisions.

If you do have rea­son­able time to make the deci­sion, that fall to the analy­sis paral­y­sis trap. Don’t drag you feet. By putting off a deci­sion you will only add to an already over­flow­ing agenda to unfin­ished business.

4.On what data should I base my decision?

One clar­i­fi­ca­tion need to be made: by Fact we mean all kind of avail­able data. You may have proven pic­tures, sta­tis­ti­cal analy­sis, prob­a­bil­ity val­ues, psy­cho­log­i­cal analy­sis and others.

A deci­sion is no bet­ter then the data on which it is based. Have all the facts at your dis­posal. Improve your explo­ration of options by ask­ing your­self such ques­tions as:

1. What facts do I have?
2. What else do I need to know?
3. Whom should I ask?
4. What should I ask?
5. What printed mat­ter is available?

5.Don’t be afraid of mak­ing the wrong decision

There is a risk involved in every deci­sion. No is blessed with infi­nite wis­dom. Ask your­self what is the worst thing that can hap­pen if I make the wrong choice? There are three types of losses you can make:

• time lose
• money loss
• Human life loss.

Remem­ber that some­time, in order to save life a deci­sion need to be made in sec­ond. While in the other hand, plan­ing an air­plane should take all con­sid­er­a­tion and even expand the dead­line to save lives later.

6.Learn from your mistakes

If your deci­sion is later shown to be the wrong one, find out where you went wrong. Seek advice from oth­ers. Did you neglect or under empha­size any of facts?

Remem­ber the golden rule “

Don’t to repeat that mis­take again.its ok to wrror once.it’s stu­pid­ity to error again in same decison.

7.Use your imagination

A log­i­cal deci­sion is not always the best answer in all the sit­u­a­tions. Be pre­pared to use brain­storm­ing, analo­gies, and lat­eral think­ing in you search for a new approach to the prob­lem at the hand. Use the tech­nique that best fits the prob­lem. Think of an artist who uses his imag­i­na­tion to pro­duce paint or a sculp­ture. Think of a chess player who cre­ated a unique plan.

8.Make your deci­sion, and move on

Do every­thing you can make sure the tight deci­sion is make, but once you made it, and exe­cut­ing of that deci­sion is in the order of the day, stop wor­ry­ing about the outcome.

Don’t look back all the time. Con­tinue as it was the best ever deci­sion. Remem­ber that oth­ers are watch­ing you and any hes­i­ta­tion after mak­ing the deci­sion will looks as weak point at you lead­er­ship. Also, keep in mind that the fact you made the deci­sion and not oth­ers gives you a strong impres­sion of non fear per­son­al­ity. Fear and lazy are not wel­come char­ac­ters and as an office sur­vivor, you don’t have them.

Ban­ish past deci­sions from your mind or you will lose the capac­ity to give you full and undi­vided atten­tion to the more press­ing and impor­tant need at the present.

 

How to become a bet­ter deci­sion maker, 8.0 out of 10 based on 1 rat­ing

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