Pull the Trigger: Making Decisions in Business

As an entrepreneur and business owner, you are faced with making decisions on a daily basis. Some are as small as how many paperclips to buy for the office but get as big as where to purchase an office, make a key hire, or roll out a new product or campaign.

When making decisions in business, here are a few important points to consider that I have found to be very valuable in my journey:

Look for “wise” advice. Though anyone can offer advice, “wise” guidance only comes from people who have an impact on and are significant to your life and career.
Given how important the choice is, give yourself enough time to consider it. That means it takes two seconds to determine whether to buy paper clips. It should take longer to purchase a building because there is more at stake.
• Analyze and seek out the potential outcomes both if a decision gets made and goes well and if the same decision is made and does not go well. Be ready and willing to accept both outcomes.
• There can be times when you decide not to decide. Accept that and always make a decision, even if that means not deciding right now. Set a time to come back and make the decision.
There is a small line between not making a decision because you are overthinking it (paralysis by analysis) and making a hasty, rash decision. Both can be detrimental to business, so strike a balance.
• This last point was shared in my EO Forum a few months ago after one of our members heard a speaker present a message a while back, the speaker was a retired Marine. He shared the following about making a decision: “When making a decision, make sure you have all the information at hand from strong sources, and analyze and determine all the potential outcomes of making the decision. Once you have done so, decide and act. Do not look back, do not second guess yourself. Once you make the call and pull the trigger; GO! Know that you made the best decision for the team, the customer, the community or the cause that you could at that time with the information and intel that you had. Just move forward, and act.”

That last point really hit home for me as an entrepreneur. Sometimes we make a call and then second guess it endlessly. This second guessing creates a lack of clarity and certainty that we need to make future decisions. When a leader lacks certainty, the people this leader is responsible for leading will sense the lack of certainty and this can cause a lack of teamwork and moving forward together for whatever your cause or business is.

Thanks again for reading my blog this week. I hope this blog has inspired you, encouraged you and helped you to grow as an entrepreneur and leader.

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