Overview
The picture above shows several of my shirts hanging up in the laundry room. My kids saw them all together like this and asked me why all my shirts are grey. While I like how they look with just about anything (they tend to hide dirt!), it wasn’t totally on purpose. There’s another important reason: I don’t like spending much time deciding what to wear, what to eat, or a variety of other trivial decisions. It may be boring, but it saves valuable brainpower for more important decisions, and we tend to make a lot of those in a given day. Look at some well-known leaders – they often wear the same type of outfit every day!
Being decisive is an underrated superpower. If you look at some of the best leaders in business, government, and beyond, decisiveness is a trait they all tend to share. In this article, we’ll discuss why decisiveness is so powerful, what keeps us from being more decisive, and how we can master this critical skill.
Why be decisive?
Being decisive has several benefits.
It saves time
In the grey shirts example I opened with, I mentioned I spend very little time deciding what to wear, maybe 30 seconds a day. Many people spend 10 or 20 minutes a day flipping through the closet, even trying on different outfits. If you spend 17 minutes every day doing this (or anything else!), that adds up to 2 hours a week. Over 84 years, that’s an ENTIRE YEAR! I don’t know about you, but I’ve got way too much other stuff to do and there’s only so much time in the day to do it!
It saves precious brainpower
While time is a finite resource, so is brainpower. We make so many decisions every day (big and tiny), and after so many of them, we start to get decision fatigue. There’s a point at which we start to be negatively productive!
It helps you learn
Being decisive means trying things out and taking action, even if we don’t make the best choice. Doing the wrong thing is better than doing nothing, because at least we get to learn something, and ideally, apply that learning towards future decisions.
It makes you a leader
People tend to sense the confidence that comes from someone committing to a major decision. It takes courage and commitment to make big decisions, especially when they don’t please everyone. Courage, commitment, and confidence are three traits you often see with solid leaders.
Traps to avoid that lead to indecision
All of us are guilty of being indecisive at one point or another. For many people, it’s a daily routine. Here are some traps to keep in mind as you look to avoid being indecisive.
Option overload
Often we can’t decide because there are just too many options to choose from. It’s often called “stimulus overflow.” We suffer from this often in my home when deciding what to eat for dinner. We try to plan ahead and rotate the responsibility, but it’s still a struggle. I often make suggestions but they too often get rejected! The solution: narrow down the options to 7 or less choices. It may seem silly but sometimes making a list and marking options off can often leave you with the best (or at least the most efficient) choice.
Permanent stress
Part of what gives us “decision paralysis” is our innate fear of leaving our comfort zone and choosing things that are unfamiliar. We delay making a decision thinking it will just go away or somehow get easier. The solution: just go for it. Train your brain to leave your comfort zone. It’s just like a muscle that can be trained by stretching and strength training!
Perfectionism
Most of us are also guilty of wanting things to be perfect before we take action. It again comes from a place of fear – we don’t want to look bad or make a mistake. The solution: get to 80% of the information you need to make a decision. It’s okay not to be perfect. Remember, you can learn and adjust!
Best practices for becoming more decisive
There are several things you can do to be more decisive – here are the top five.
Minimize trivial decisions
It may not seem like it, but we make thousands of decisions a day – some experts estimate over 60,000 of them! Using the clothing example from above, you can minimize decisions like this in two ways: decrease your choices, and templatize them. Reuse your thinking wherever you can. That frees up an amazing amount of brainpower!
Be observant
When you truly pay attention, it’s amazing how the world around you can give you the perspective you need to shape your thoughts. This can often lead to clearer decisions. If you’re not paying attention, you may miss out on crucial considerations for the decisions you need to make.
Think through the options
Many people make short-sighted decisions and don’t think through all the ramifications. Don’t fall into the perfectionism trap – remember that 80% of the information will generally do. But don’t let the most important factors be a part of the missing 20%! Leverage your prior experiences. Consider the important pros and cons to develop an analytical decision. Solicit thoughts from your key team members. Back it all up with your gut. Remember, you were put in a decision-making position for a reason!
Set a reasonable deadline
We all tend to naturally procrastinate and often we need a deadline to drive a sense of urgency. Set decision-making deadlines that are reasonable enough to give some time to appropriately think, but not so much that you’re paralyzed into not making a decision.
Take action
Once you make your decision, commit to it the best that you can, and take action. Sometimes you have to pivot, and sometimes you have to cut your losses. That’s okay – make sure to learn from it and where appropriate – share those learnings!
Summary
If decisiveness were easy, no one would struggle with it, but the fact is, it’s quite tough! This is rooted in fear of failing. Two key acronyms that reframe these words will help overcome this:
- FEAR = Face Everything And Respond
- FAIL = Future Attempt In Learning
To improve your decisiveness, avoid the traps. Minimize trivial decisions and practice tougher ones by leaving your comfort zone. Think through the likely outcomes of your decision. Set a deadline, commit to a decision, and take action. And whatever you do, never stop learning!
What major decisions have shaped you throughout your career and life? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
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