Here are a solid set of principles for making sound
decisions under pressure:
1. Remove the rose-coloured
glasses: A good cost-benefit appraisal can be trickier than you think. Why?
Because most of us tend to underestimate costs and overestimate benefits – and
to be generally optimistic about our ability to make things happen. Our
analyses inevitably bend toward the outcomes we’re hoping for. Good decision-makers are wary of wishful thinking. Get a
second or third opinion from sceptics you trust — the advisers who'll push back
and make you defend your assessments.
2. Wield the red pen
ruthlessly: When it comes to picking ideas, separate the elephants from the
ants. Cross off everything but the top few priorities, and make sure you
haven’t fallen in love with pet projects and ‘hobbies’ whose time may have
passed. When it’s clear a pet project is ailing, hurry up and get out the rifle
(so to speak). A few, clear, simple goals are more likely to yield results than
complex “perfect decisions” that can bog down an organisation.
3. Don’t fall in love
with percentages: Everyone likes a tenfold return, but you’re not going to
be noticed by the Financial Times for turning £10,000 into £100,000. A mere
doubling of £500 million into £1 billion, however, could be worth spilling some
ink over. In many business decisions, it’s the long-term return that matters,
and the highest absolute benefit wins over the highest percentage benefit.
4. Don’t delay the
decision: Time is rarely on your side. When did you last hear an executive
say he made a tough call too soon. The same goes for making personnel
decisions: if you’re not looking for ways to promote or keep current team
members, it may be time to think about replacing them.
5. Feel the fear and
do it anyway: Be careful about letting your feelings warp your perception
of the situation. Fear can make you freeze up; but in almost every case, it’s
better to make a call and deal with consequences than to leave things in limbo.
Look the circumstances squarely in the face. As Sir Winston Churchill said,
"courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which
guarantees all others.”
6. What would Kant
do? It should go without saying that you want your decision to be an
ethical one. So if your ethical compass needs a bit more calibrating, remember
Emmanuel Kant. His “categorical imperative” is a useful thought experiment to
help you decide if you’re doing the right thing. It’s a bit like “The Golden
Rule” on steroids: what if everyone in the world, in your shoes, always made
the same choice you’re about to make? If that's a world you’d want to live in,
you’re okay in Kant’s book.
7. But can you
execute it? Good decisions can become great ones if you execute them well.
So for every one of your options, think about whether it’ll be easy to explain
to your team and your organisation, or if it’s likely to be lost in translation.
Will people be enthusiastic about making it happen? If not, maybe the idea's
not as good as it looked on paper.
8. Think forward:
Don’t relive past decisions – good or bad. Circumstances change, people change,
and you change. Dwelling on past glories or failures is dangerous and
unproductive.
9. Borrow wisdom:
You’re probably not the first person to face a given predicament, so seek out
anyone who might have been there before. Mentors have seen a lot of things –
find a good one if you can. And make a habit of reading about how past leaders
made momentous choices. Many of us have come to rely on our instincts to cut through
the jungle of choices we face every day. Be careful, though: good intuition is
not the same as good decision-making. In business, intuition works, but only in conjunction with
calculation. Like a chess master, you should pick your move after weighing the
outcomes. Then make it, implement it, and start thinking about the next one.
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