Why Decision-Making is THE Most Important Skill for Leaders

I’ve been working on a playbook that’s quickly become a full-blown course. This is an excerpt from the introduction.

Decision-making is THE most important skill for leaders. I chose to create this playbook because it’s become painfully obvious this is an area where most leaders fail.

Here’s the challenge as I view it:

1. The Noise Problem

We’re all faced with this endless barrage of media. Everywhere you look, there’s something trying to capture your attention.

The sheer volume of content has trained our attention spans to weaken. The bar has been raised for what’s required to keep our focus.

In decision-making, this means it’s become more difficult to parse out the important information and insights from the rest.

Let’s face it, everyone these days has an opinion. The problem is that they treat these opinions like convictions. People hear something on the news, form an opinion, and they are willing to die on a hill defending it.

Everyone does it to some extent, but with better awareness, we can see when we’re committing this error and notice when others do the same.

By getting good at the process of making decisions, we can break through the noise and find critical information much faster. We can then better put that information to work, helping us make the best decisions for our current situation.

2. The Stakes Are Raised

The modern world moves fast. Because of this, a poor decision is harder than ever to come back from. And worse, is that you’re faced with decisions at a much larger volume than before because of that speed.

When you add in the fact that, thanks to social media, everyone can learn about your poor decisions quickly, tainting your reputation, it’s never been more important to get good at decision-making.

Your team’s livelihoods are on the line. They’re counting on you as the leader to keep them safe.

We’re blessed as a modern society with the ability to be ethical. Long ago, survival was the priority. Nothing else mattered. Today, there’s a good chance you’re going to survive without a lot of effort. This means we have the luxury of being ethical. That also means it’s another layer of variables to stack on your decision-making.

3. Competition for Resources

With economic and environmental constraints, yet continuous demands from the market, our decisions are harder to make. We don’t have an abundance of resources to make unlimited decisions. We must be deliberate in every choice.

Your competitors are targeting the same audience, they’re reaching out to the same investors, and they’re fighting for space on the same shelves and platforms.

Making good decisions is critical to keeping your business growing.

Final Thoughts

“The best leaders make the best decisions.“

Think back on every leader you’ve studied, read about, worked with…

Every last one of them is known because they made great decisions.

There are a few that we study for their poor decision, yes. But the ones with statues…The ones that are truly remembered…

They made amazing decisions.

“Great strategy comes from great decisions.”

If you want to be a fantastic strategist, you need to know what to say yes and no to.

Look at the root of the word:

de = ‘off’

caedere = ‘cut’

Deciding is to cut off all the options you’re not selecting. It’s important that you choose right because you’ll find it’s often impossible to get back what you’ve severed from.