"i need to be efficient in decision making."

 "i need to be efficient in decision making."

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

Last week, we discussed a misconception and reasoning behind  " indecisiveness," there is one more misconception, which is quite opposite of indecision. That is urge on "i need to be more efficient on decision making."
 
According to this mindset, we measure our efficiency as the speed of making decisions and the quantum of decisions we take every day. Compared to inactiveness, efficiency is relatively better, however, what matters for managers and leaders is effectiveness—the impact of the decisions on others and the business.
 
For example, consider this situation.
 
In one of the organizations, the business head is engaged and busy in instructing the team on many trivial issues like approving the leave application, fixing the connectivity issues by calling the relevant agency, and so on. Despite having an excellent team to do all mundane decisions and actions, he seemed fulfilled when he engaged himself in many trivial decisions.

Eventually, he is getting decision fatigue. Most of the critical business decisions like streamlining delivery, productivity, and supply chain decisions are not being taken by him, which he only can take decisions in the organization. The urge and practice of involving and jumping into all decisions eventually affect the organization's prospects.
 
When you are growing, it is expected to make impactful decisions than the speed of the decisions, even in trivial issues.

I have witnessed one of my ex-colleague who was considered a bright candidate at a young age due to his speed in making decisions and making things happen. When he was promoted to senior management level, he eventually lost his creditability due to his impulsive decision-making style in many initiatives, which backfired against him and the organization.
 
Except in emergencies, quick  / speed decisions are not required to solve chronic issues or any strategic future-related challenges. 
 
Having the idea of being efficient by making fast, more decision-making is just a misconception. It just needs awareness!

As professionals, we need to be aware of our effectiveness by making impactful decisions that we can only take.

Have a great week ahead.
 

i need to make the right decision always !!!

  I need to make the right decision always !!!

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

One of the myths most of us have in the workplace on making decisions is "i need to make the right decision."
 

The mindset of always making the right decision leads to either perfectionism or looking for more data/ facts and too much analysis, eventually ending up with not making any decisions or delaying the decisions.

Obviously, we come to know whether the decision is right or wrong only when taken and not while finalizing the choice.

The effect of this mindset makes the people either too passive in not making decisions or being rude to prove to the world that their decision is right at any cost. Both behaviors are not good for the individual and the organization.

For example, as a manager, you need to decide to recruit a person after an interview. Instead of focusing too much on the right or wrong recruit, you have a choice to focus on the process of shortlisting, interview methodology, and make a deliberate choice. You will come to know whether the decision is right or wrong only after the person joins the organization and performs.

The capability is expected from the manager or leader is the ability to choose with the given facts than looking for too much perfectionism or worrying too much about the consequence.

Another example, as we are aware of the decision taken by the TATA group some years ago, to launch a low-cost, affordable car (NANO). During that time, it was applauded as bold, correct decisions. Today, they stopped manufacturing the model itself due to various reasons. Would we say it was the wrong decision? No…When they decided with the good intentions of providing affordable cars, the assumptions were different. Today they decided to stop manufacturing with the market reality as it was different from the earlier hypotheses. They demonstrated leadership by making decisions with the right motive and available data points.

In professional life, depending upon the role and the situations, we need to make decisions with good intentions and available information; time only will decide whether the decision is right or wrong. We need not worry too much about the consequence.

Also, we need to understand that decision-making is not an event; it is a process. That means it is continuous and ongoing.

Hence, as a manager/ leader, we need to decide with available facts and the right motive than worrying too much about the consequences of always being RIGHT.

It is better to be active by making decisions than to be passive by not making timely decisions.

We need to be aware of our mindsets towards labeling the decisions as right or wrong.

Let us discuss some more myths next week.

Developing Decision Making Skill @ workplace

 Developing Decision Making Skill @ workplace 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

One of the competencies a professional should develop is making decisions in personal and professional life.

Generally, some of the decisions we take quickly without much thinking and effort like which dress to wear, what to eat, etc. Because those decisions are routine and no risk. Some decisions are difficult to make as it calls for more thought-process and effort. For example, should i switch careers from one industry to another?  should i diversify my business now or later? Should we buy petrol or an electric vehicle?

We are stuck in making decisions when there is ambiguity in the facts/assumptions and unsure about the future consequences. Most of the decisions in a professional environment are complex and uncertain; how to develop decision-making competency as a leader?

Why do we need to develop decision-making competency?

From a personal perspective, we are getting confidence only through our actions. When we decide and take actions, that will boost our confidence to take higher decisions and actions. we are growing only through our choices and actions

From a professional perspective, when we are growing up, we are being paid to make the right decisions based on the set of data or assumptions. Managers and Leaders are meant for making decisions, either right or wrong.

"decisions followed by action leads to results either good or bad."

Whatever we are today due to the combination of various decisions we took in life in many instances.

 
For example,

i decided to attend one training programme in 2008 despite time and high cost, which transformed my career.
i took an impulsive decision in one of the investments, which affected me heavily on the financial front
i took a decision to reject a career change opportunity from manufacturing to IT consulting, which helped me in the long term with high returns 

Whether the outcome is right or wrong, we make some decisions, which shape us into what we are today.
 
You may relate your life and the decisions you have taken in many instances that positively or negatively impact your quality of life.
 
 In a professional setup, given any circumstances, how we develop decision-making skills depends on how we process the information and counter the consequences. It needs some awareness of ourselves and the decision-making process.
 
 Let us discuss some of the insights in the following weeks to get more awareness of the decision-making process.
 

• Misconceptions on decision making
• Why do we have decision dilemmas or hesitate to take decisions in a professional environment?
• How to overcome the decision dilemma or hesitation?
• Skills to develop on solving problems
• Tools and Techniques that help you to make decisions easily
• How to inculcate the culture of decision-making in the organization?

Have a great week ahead!

Avoiding impulsive decisions( Contd..)

 Avoiding impulsive decisions( Contd..) 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 

Last week we discussed one of the methods to avoid impulsive decisions-i.e Going beyond the numbers or facts with example. Let us understand other methods to avoid impulsive decision making.


Taking timeout for responding:

Except for emergencies, not all business decisions call for immediate reaction or response. We can take time out to make the decision. One of the benefits of taking timeout is that the time makes us think about the alternatives or choices for solutions. When we are making decisions impulsively, we feel as if there is no alternative.

When we give time ourselves, we are thinking about both rationally and emotionally. We are in a position to generate the options and able to evaluate the pros and cons of the options.

Typically we come across situations when dealing through emails. We used to react to mail communication immediately as impulsive and later realized that we could have taken timeout to respond with different choices. Sometime back, i have shared my experience on impulsive way of reacting to email as given in the link.

https://lifeexcellenceinsights.blogspot.com/2019/05/lessons-learned-on-email-communication.html

It just needs the ability to distinguish which decisions call for immediate attention and which decisions can be delayed. Not all workplace decisions need the same level of urgency!
 
Getting the perspectives from elders or mentors:
 
The next practical method is to get a perspective from others or mentors on important personal or business decisions. The obvious reason is that when we are emotionally overwhelmed with the problem, we may not see it from the other dimensions. Others could see it from a different perspective because they are not emotionally attached.

Most of us might have experienced that when we were about to make an impulsive decision due to emotions, and when we discussed with others, they provided us simple, rational solutions to the problem.

It requires that we need someone to share the concerns and get different rational perspectives than making impulsive decisions and struggling with the consequences.

Impulsive reaction and decision making

 Impulsive reaction and decision making

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 

  In continuation of channelizing the emotions for the positive outcome, one more emotional practice that needs attention is "Making Impulsive  Decisions or Reactions."

The impulsive decision means taking quick decisions without much thought about the consequences, implications to others, and self. Spontaneous reaction means quickly reacting to someone during the conversation without thinking about the consequence. It is simply all about "not thinking before speaking"

For example,

When a manager/colleague/ customer is asking for timeline commitment, without any thought or calculation, committing some timeline and realizing later that impossible to complete.

When somebody asks for your appointment tomorrow, you are agreeing for that, then later on realizing that you have some other commitments.

You can relate your experiences where you committed something without any thought and later troubled yourself to fulfill the commitment or asked for excuses.
 
Why do we make impulsive decisions? 

It is due to our inability to control our emotions, both positive and negative emotions in a particular moment or conversation. It is a state of mind, and it is challenging to be in a balanced state, but that is what most of the effective people use to display both in extremely happy or in extremely uncertain times. That we need to learn while growing up in the ladder.
 
Why should leaders not make impulsive decisions?

Taking an impulsive decision is not good for everyone, but especially it costs more for the people who are growing up and at higher positions. When you are young and make any impulsive decision, it would be seen as aggressive, over-enthusiastic, ambitious, and the mistakes are perceived from the perspective.

When at a higher level, when we react without much thinking and impulsive in making decisions in a business environment, it will affect most of the stakeholders.

I know one of my managers who had grown very fast in the early years of the career due to his impulsive way of making things happen. The same strength affected his reputation and growth when he was handling the managerial roles to manage both business and people.

We should not conclude that impulsive decision means taking decision slowly. It only means making decisions without thinking about the consequences.

But in reality, most of us are prone to impulsive reaction and decision making, and we need to strive to be conscious about it.
 
Let us discuss some of the strategies to channelize the impulsive reaction or decision making next week!

Aware of Personal Values

Aware of Personal Values 
(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 

As we are learning some of the ways to be more aware of self, let us understand the power of personal values in decision making and managing our emotions in the workplace.

What is meant by personal values?

Values are things that we regard as very important for us. Some examples of values could be equality, honesty, learning, pride, effort, perseverance, loyalty, commitment, faithfulness, money, relationship, love, care, kindness, health, family, career and so on. Each one of us has some deep-rooted importance or values on the subconscious level, and it directs the emotions at an appropriate time.

We make decisions based on the values and we use them as a compass to enhance the positive emotions or to avoid negative emotions. When we have clarity on our core value, i.e., what is very much essential for us, that will help us to resolve any hidden conflicts, remove internal stress and outburst in any decisions.

For example,

You might have observed some people that they used to make quick decisions when it comes to career vs. family as they have clarity on what they want. Some take career growth over family, happy with that, and vice versa. Because they are clear about what is important for them, and they align the decision. When you force yourself to decide on against your internal value system, you get into the trap of value conflict, and that will affect your emotions severely.

A few years back, i  collaborated with a known person for the business. Within a month of working together, i  felt discomfort and developed internal stress as there was value conflict between us. I valued much on process, methodological working, slow  and my partner valued much on the result, speed and revenue generation. Within a short time, we closed the partnership deal. There is nothing wrong with the individual's choice of values; both are right. But when there is value conflict, it is not going to be beneficial to anyone in the long term.

You might have come across similar situations with your friends, family members, colleagues and the quality of the relationship is based on value alignment and value conflict.

The point is that being aware of personal values and value alignment is a very much important aspect for intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational harmony and growth.

When you are aware of your values, you will get clarity on your priorities and importance. This clarity will help you to make the right decisions and keeping your emotions in a positive mode.
 

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Action:
List down the important things for you and finally shortlist the TOP3 values. Check whether it is aligned with your aspirations and with others.
Finetuning and altering the values with the help of the coach will change the direction of life. 

Never react when you are in disturbed state

     One day Buddha was traveling from one town to another town along with his followers. On the way, they took a rest and the Buddha asked one of his followers to get some water from the nearby lake.A disciple walked up to the lake and he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the lake water and also a bullock cart crossing through the lake.As a result, water became muddy and the disciple thought this muddy water cannot be given to Buddha to drink. He came back to Buddha and told that the water was muddy and not suitable for drinking.

     After a while, Buddha again asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get some water. The disciple also went to the lake and found that mud was settled down and the water was clean enough to drink.So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.

      Buddha looked at the water and looked up at the disciple and said “what did you do to make the water clean to drink? You just allowed it as such to settle down the mud.Similarly, when your mind is in a disturbed state, you cannot make use of it effectively for decision making or doing anything useful. 

      Most of our email communication or direct communications in professional life becomes annoyed or tuned out negative when we react it during our disturbed state. Give a little time to settle it down, your mind becomes in a positive state and you can produce results”

Am I leading my life the way I want ?

One of the lingering questions a few of us will have at some point in time is “Am I leading my life the way I want?" .Particularly, this question come to those who had fulfilled the basic need of the survival. This question comes when there is a conflict of interest in what we are doing now and what we like to do.Some people label it as passion.

As I witnessed that  some people answered the question, led a path rightly and some people struggle to find the right answer themselves.

This calls for structured process as follows

1.First, accept this disturbance as such.You are disturbed by this question because you are destined for something else, that is good. 

2.Allow some time  for settling down as  any quick emotional decision  may  affect  the quality of life

3.Spend time privately for reflection  both on logical and emotional  outcome  of  any decision you take 

4.Seek  the help from genuine coaches who can work with you without bias  on your values/beliefs and guide you  to choose the right decision  by yourselves  

5.Experiment your passion without giving up your current path as reality will give a clarity whether your passion is sustainable or not. Based on the experience, you can decide your path.

Finally, you are the master of your life, own any decision what may come and enjoy the process!!

Life decisions with long term perspectives

If we look at any great organization’s history, they had many struggles to deliver consistent results, but still they are existing today and making an impact is due to their decision making in crucial times based on long-term perspective. Similarly, if we observe  any successful married  couples, they could be your parents, they might have faced many struggles in their lifetime, but still they made a difference as role models, it could be due to  their decision making in important stages of life  was based on  long term perspective.

One of the profound management principles of Toyota, which says, “Base your management decisions on long term philosophy, even at the cost of short term benefits.”

Sometimes, we are tempted for short-term benefits in career switch or job switch decision making which cost our potential to make an impact on long term.

Most of the relationship issues arise when one of them takes a call considering short-term pain or gain foregoing the long-term happiness.

In fact, in the stock market, those who stay long term make more money than short-term traders do, even though there is so much of hype and temptation about short term trading.

Look around any achievements, impacts, inventions; it could be made possible due to long-term perspective of the person involved, even at the cost of short-term temptations or benefits.

Just be aware of your life decisions whether they are for short-term gains or avoiding short-term pains or they are for long-term impact and happiness. 

Executing an Idea

“Ideas are easy. It's the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.” - Sue Grafton

      Have you ever come across an excellent idea which you believed would  transform you or your career or your business to the next level? But at the same time, you are inhibited with the laziness, fear of failure, fear of criticism from others, fear of success or exposure (some people have  fear of success or exposure!!!!), Skeptical about the idea worthiness etc..Later point of time, you became to know that the same idea or similar one  was implemented by someone  and you started  feeling guilty of not executing.

      The reason as stated above, most of the time, we are blocked with doubts, fear of any kind, more importance to other’s opinion etc..This is primarily due to a decision dilemma about the execution of ideas.

How to overcome this dilemma as from my personal experience  

1. Spiritual perspective:

Since you only get the idea initially, that means, it is with SOME PURPOSE. Believe it and start to execute the idea

2. Emotional perspective:

Visualize the pain you will be undergoing when someone is executing a similar idea at a later stage. To avoid the pain, start to execute the idea.

3. Rational perspective:

Think about best and worst things may happen if the idea is executed and your capacity to handle the consequence.

Once you evaluate from the above perspectives, either you come to conclusion to execute or not. In both cases, you would be happy, as you are free from guiltiness. Your peace of mind is important .
Happy living!

Decision Making

“When people are afraid, they make emotional decisions”.—John Mellencamp

           Even though , we learn structured methodologies, tools and techniques for arriving logical decision, still  decision making is being one of the difficult aspects of life management. There are two situations when we face a decision making dilemma. One is during crisis (urgent) moment and  another one for making (important ) personal life decisions like  a child's education, switching the profession, changing the job, relocation or even the investment decisions.

        Generally, our minds go as per the emotional urge during the moment of decision-making point. Even though emotions drive our behavior, most of the time, any decisions taken only based on emotional reason may not be the right solution. It is preferable to answer for both emotional and rational needs before taking an important life decision.

         For example, if you desire to  change your profession, look into the emotional need such as passion, pride, ego fulfilling, happiness, etc. as well as rationally evaluate  your Knowledge, Skill set, gap needs to be filled and  alternative plans, etc. This balanced evaluation of both emotional and rational need may give you the right  mindset  to take a decision which makes you peace and happiness.

        Be aware of your decision making pattern of all important life decisions, balance with emotional and rational approach  and you attract good things in life!