Decision-making is an essential part of our personal and professional lives. In addition, it is not only the decision-making and immediate reaction that matters but also the long-term effects that can lead to confusion and affect the functioning of our personal and professional lives. Note that the deliberate decision-making process does not guarantee a good outcome but makes it more likely. Moreover, critical decisions made by leaders with the best information, data, and intentions sometimes turn out poorly. Therefore, as a leader, if you can gradually eliminate bad decision-making practices and replace them with positive ones, you will set yourself up for much greater success.
Bad practices in the decision-making process
1. Failure to conduct research and investigation
As a leader, when you do more research and investigation, you can gain data to make a more informed decision that will impact future results. Therefore, the time and effort spent on research should be directly proportional to the size of your decision.
2. Lack of logic
Many leaders rely solely on charisma and intuition to manage their positions. Note that this type generally has a great spirit, but they only last briefly in their positions because they sometimes lack tactics and logic. While, in some cases, your intuition can help you choose between two relatively similar options, relying on logic and sound advice is the better strategy in the long run.
3. Postponing decision making
Many managers face difficult decisions, so they postpone making them for as long as possible. Making hasty and immediate decisions is not advisable, but worse is delaying decisions that should be made relatively quickly.
4. Excessive reliance on other points of view
A leader must be open to different opinions, ideas, and viewpoints. However, as a leader, you should be independent of other points of view in making decisions. This is your job; you must have distinctive fingerprints and make decisions.
5. Avoid difficulties and consequences
As a leader, there are several difficult decisions you must make. But often, you make specific decisions to avoid their difficulty and short-term consequences. However, these difficulties and short-term consequences must be addressed in many cases to ensure long-term results.
6. Urgency and haste
As a business leader, you must take time and look at the situations and problems you face rationally. It would help if you did not rush into deciding, regardless of the amount of time pressure and deadlines.
7. Vanity and pride
Often, vanity and pride hinder the ability to solve problems and make decisions. As a leader, it is essential to realize that everyone has shared organizational success in mind and to consult others before making a bad decision.
8. Not anticipating the future effects of decisions
It is essential that, as a leader, you constantly have a forward-thinking mindset and avoid making bad decisions. You should also always plan and anticipate the future effects of this decision and know how to confront them.
9. Hesitation
When reports and analyses take much longer than expected, leaders hesitate, delay decision-making, and lose opportunity. As a leader, you must organize the process, dare to accomplish it, and not hesitate to make the appropriate decision.
10. Weak communication channels
As a leader, once a decision is made, you must ensure everyone understands it, its reasons, and how it will affect them. Conversely, some good choices will become bad decisions. Therefore, there must be effective communication channels with everyone.
11. Instinctive optimism
When people know that something less bad will happen than expected, they tend to be instinctively optimistic, thus adjusting their expectations to fit the new information they have learned. As a future leader, be confident about your abilities, which can hinder making good decisions.
12. Confirmation bias
Many leaders’ viewpoints tend to be biased in favor of what they want to happen and believe to be accurate, ignoring, or marginalizing information that challenges their beliefs. Note that this confirmation bias may predict poor decision-making to prove what they believe in the work context.
13. Betting on past experiences
Some leaders make poor decisions because they become accustomed to patterns that have worked in the past and tend not to look for methods that would work better. The world is evolving to become more complex and volatile. As a leader, placing only your decisions and some ofts on patterns drawn from past experiences would not be wise.
14. Lack of causal understanding of variables
Understanding how a vast network of interconnected variables interact with each other requires an enormous amount of processing power and analysis. As a leader, only through a causal understanding of variables can you genuinely know what is happening and what to do next, thus avoiding making bad decisions.
15. Selectivity in using data
Many leaders use selective statements to assert that their decisions are good, regardless of whether the statements are factual or not. Therefore, as a leader, you need to reflect on the sheer volume of bad decisions exacerbated in the organization due to the selective use of data and then work to avoid them.
16. Not linking events to a clear strategy
A clear strategy can lead to good decisions due to not relating the problem to the plan. As a leader, you must develop a clear strategy and link events and problems closely to it.
17. Failure to involve people with relevant experience
Sometimes, many leaders deliberately do not include others with relevant expertise in decision-making. If they want to take credit, they make many bad decisions for which they are responsible.
18. Lack of specialized knowledge and perspective
Unfortunately, many leaders do not have technical expertise and perspectives of their own and rely solely on the experience of others. Therefore, they need help integrating that experience and information, which leads to them making poor decisions.
19. Lack of openness to learning and development
As a future leader, you must be open to new ideas, innovations, and visions. It would help if you were also available to learn and develop new strategies and vital perspectives to reduce bad decision-making.
20. Satisfy everyone
It is only sometimes necessary to satisfy everyone and get their approval, as you will often make bad decisions that do not suit anyone. As a leader, remember that people’s satisfaction is an unachievable goal, and be confident in making decisions that fit needs.
It is helpful to eliminate these bad decision-making practices. Knowing that “good” decisions will always outweigh “bad” decisions. Ultimately, the worst decision is not being made at all.
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