11 September 2019

An indecisive and unproductive manager can disable a business and its potential to grow

A business owner needs to be able to come up with decisions confidently and relatively quick, as compared to sitting on them for an uncertain period of time or having the inclination to change minds when it’s already too late. Being efficient in making decisions and acting upon them are important qualities of a business leader because it means that the response time is faster, problems are fixed quicker, and as a result the business adapt to new circumstances without raising more issues.

Being a decisive and mentally-strong leader also increases your authority and reputation as a tough front-runner, earning you your team’s respect and allowing you to set a good example for them to follow.

A chronic procrastinator, on the other hand, will find being decisive a great challenge. When faced with a hard-hitting decision, an indecisive leader might delay his answer as long as possible or avoid making the choice altogether.

As a Business Coach, my goal is to train you into becoming a more efficient and smart leader, and to achieve that, one of the tasks is to help you become more decisive and efficient.

The indecision syndrome

Before we start working on changing your attitude on decision-making, we need to understand the factors that lead to indecision. There are several reasons why you might procrastinate, but one of the most common reasons is analysis paralysis. The things is that when leaders overanalyse a problem, the harder it becomes to find a solution, which causes the delay to make a suitable response. They end up running over the same options, hoping for some new information to appear, or toggle between two choices, unable to decide which is better.

So what is the antidote for indecision and procrastination?

Understand that perfection is not everything

Winston Churchill once said that perfection is the enemy of progress. What often holds us back from making a decision is the obsession towards perfection. In any situation, we want to choose the “perfect” route, the one with heaps of gains and no downsides. Unfortunately, such choices aren’t realistic, so we’re left instead with a handful of alternatives that aren’t particularly good or bad.

To really resolve the situation, you’ll need to let go of any notions of perfectionism that could cloud your judgment and decision-making capabilities. Understand that business decisions are fundamentally flawed, and that the most that can do is find a reasonable, rational path to coming up with a fix.

Work on something now to attain fast progress

You can’t always finalize your decision right away, so in the meantime, commit to making some kind of progress with your decision. For instance, if you can’t decide what activities you want to carry out in an upcoming event, write down a handful of potential ideas as early as possible. This gives you a chance to follow your instincts and delay the finality of your decision, but at the same time it will also motivate you to take a step closer to that crucial objective.

This may not be ideal when an urgent decision is needed, but if you have some time to play with, it will offer a creative spin on your usual procrastinating habits.

Don’t focus too much on the worst-case scenario

Our brains are hard-wired to overemphasize the negative consequences of our actions. This prevents us from taking huge risks because we always tend to anticipate a bad outcome.

As a business owner, blowing up your expectation of risk can make you worry unreasonably about how your decision might be mistaken no matter what choice you make. Recognizing this, you might try to compensate for your disproportionate anticipation, and normalize the way you think.

Business Coaching can help you get a better perspective of your business that will train your mind to make more intelligent decisions. Let’s work together! My extensive clientele consists of companies based in all of the Midlands including Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire. Discover how REACH Business Coaching can help you grow your business by attending our free workshops and seminars.

For schedules and more information, visit our Events page.

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