Practical Advice For Making Good Decisions

Late last year brought the new book, Decisions. As seen on Public Television, the book by Robert L. Dilenschneider, features vignettes on 23 individuals who made decisions that shaped the world.

Each chapter offers practical thinking on how these women and men made decisions. You can use their decision-making skills as guidance at work, in your leadership role, and in your daily life.

You’ll learn decision making tips from Harry Truman, Margaret Thatcher, Mohammed Ali, Rachel Carson, Pablo Picasso and others who made decisions during war and peace, and in fields of science, commerce and invention.

Author Dilenschneider suggests takeaways about decision-making from each featured historical figure. Some of my favorite decision-making lessons from history and from the book include these:

Own your decisions. Be responsible for them and for their implications. Do not be reactionary—that is, making decisions to spite others or because of outside pressure—but do be respectful of their effect on others.
Keep your decisions in perspective. Many are vital, many are not. Even so, try to take all of them seriously.
Be aware of how your decisions will affect others, either directly or by the example they set.
It is essential to have your own “code,” made up of your life experience, your education, your conscience, and all the other building blocks of character. Often this is called having a “moral compass.”
Have a group of trusted advisors already at hand – family, friends, colleagues – and do not be afraid to reach beyond that close circle to bring in experts as appropriate. Consult these people! Always gauge their motivation. And then test their advice against your judgement.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t always hit the exact bull’s eye. The other rings in the target score points too.
Know everything you can about the needs and desires of the people who will be affected by your decisions or who will need to carry out your decisions.
When possible use stories and illustrations to make your point about your decision.
You will not be able to foresee all or even many of the results of your decisions. As those results become apparent, and external/internal conditions change, be prepared to make new decisions.
When your decision plays out to a positive result, be humble.

Comments

Communicate Often And Tell A Story

"Most leaders' visions fail, not due to a leader's inadequacies, but due to the leader's lack of communication," said Margaret Reynolds of Reynolds Consulting, LLC in Lee's Summit, MO. Reynolds shared her expertise with me recently during an interview. She added that it's not that leaders don't communicate, but that they don't beat the drum regularly enough. "Leaders need to communicate often, regularly and consistently," she recommended. "In terms of how to communicate so people get it, it is pretty widely accepted that story telling is the most effective," explained Reynolds. Leaders need to paint a vision where people see it often. She recommends that leaders share their vision at least seven to 10 times with their employees, and to make it clear to everyone what specifically each person can do each day to help achieve the collective mission. Reynolds' other advice to leaders is to be one who: •listens with respect...

The Five Points Of Professionalism

Here's more good advice from The Everything Coaching And Mentoring Book : Professional behavior on the job means that work habits are strong and consistent. Your organization's work ethic should be solution- and positive-results-oriented. And you should regularly take inventory of these five points of professionalism : Honesty and integrity Learning and initiative Resilience Positive attitude Teamwork Check out these useful online resources for more coaching and mentoring tips and advice: Micomentor The Center for Coaching and Mentoring The Coaching and Mentoring Network Coaching and Mentoring for Small Business Owners Manager's Forum Coaching and Mentoring Careers Peer Resources Coaching and Mentoring Training

The Six Mindsets That Distinguish The Best Leaders

The key takeaway from the book, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish The Best Leaders From The Rest , is the best CEOs think and act differently than the rest across each of six key CEO responsibilities , including: Setting the direction (vision, strategy, resource allocation) Aligning the organization (culture, organization design, talent) Mobilizing through leaders (composition, teamwork, operating rhythm) Engaging the board (relationships, capabilities, meetings) Connecting with stakeholders (social purpose, interaction, moments of truth) Managing personal effectiveness (time and energy, leadership model, perspective) Starting with a pool of more than 2,400 corporate leaders, McKinsey & Company senior partners and authors Carolyn Dewar , Scott Keller , and Vik Malhotra extensively screened the group to identify the elite core, then sat down with 67 of them for multiple hours to talk...

Give Positive Feedback. Don't Praise.

There is an important difference between giving your employees positive feedback and giving them praise . Positive feedback focuses on the specifics of job performance. Praise, often one-or two-sentence statements, such as “Keep up the good work,” without positive feedback leaves employees with empty feelings. Worse yet, without positive feedback, employees feel no sense that they are appreciated as individual talents with specific desires to learn and grow on the job and in their careers, reports Nicholas Nigro, author of, The Everything Coaching and Mentoring Book . So, skip the praise and give positive feedback that is more uplifting to your employees because it goes to the heart of their job performance and what they actually do. An example of positive feedback is : “Bob, your communications skills have dramatically improved over the past couple of months. The report that you just prepared for me was thorough and concise. I appreciate all the work you’ve put into it, as...

Reach Communications & Leadership Expert David Grossman Via His New App

If you haven't engaged with David Grossman's website, Blog and incredibly useful eBooks, make a point of checking them all out at his website for The Grossman Group. David just launched his new App, called " Ask David ." Via the App, David promises to bring his communications industry expert advice and wisdom right to your fingertips. Topics covered include: Employee engagement Internal communications Change management Leadership effectiveness Crisis messaging Diversity and inclusion

How To Recruit Rockstars

"Ninety percent of business problems are actually recruiting problems in disguise," declares Jeff Hyman , author of the book, Recruit Rockstars: The 10 Step Playbook To Find The Winners And Ignite Your Business . Hyman, who has recruited more than 3,000 people during his career, also explains that "nothing will accelerate the growth of your company faster than a commitment to placing Rockstars in every role at every level." As you read the book, you'll discover Hyman's 10-step method for landing the very best talent. Progressing through the book chapters you'll learn how to: Prepare for Rockstars Recruit only Rockstars Grow your Rockstars Keep in mind, however, that a Rockstar at one company isn't necessarily one at another. Rockstars are Rockstars because they are a fit in terms of both competencies and DNA characteristics . And the three things Rockstars prize most are: A challenging environment that allows for their best work Professional a...

How To Write An Employee Satisfaction And Engagement Survey

According to Polaris , a company that specializes in employee research, “a company’s employees are often the face and frontline of an organization and their opinion of that organization affects their attitude, thus affecting customers’ attitudes, behavior and ultimately, the bottom line.” That is why Polaris recommends that business leaders conduct employee research that allows leaders to better understand what motivates employees, drives loyalty, and makes and keeps employees happy. “An added benefit of conducting employee satisfaction research is that, in doing so, a company lets their employees know they are important, their opinions and suggestions matter, and there is a sincere desire to make the company an enjoyable place to work,” reports Polaris. Here are 10 questions Polaris recommends you ask employees as part of a wide-ranging employee satisfaction and engagement survey : For each of the following statements, indicate if you: • Strongly disagree • Disagree • Somew...

How To Make Better Decisions

These eight decision-making tactics from David Lahey ’s book, Predicting Success , are helpful to me and hopefully useful to you as well: Deep breathing , to clear your mind. Researching , to feel confident that you have all the information in front of you. Listing your options , in either verbal or written form, to keep the whole picture front of mind. Following through on the possible outcomes , complete with likely predictions and acknowledgement of whether they’re negative or positive (or design yourself a decision tree, that lays out every possible consequence visually). Testing your intuition , by imagining a committed decision and then gauging the corresponding feeling it inspires in your gut. Taking the time you need , so long as it doesn’t become an overly indulgent distraction. Evaluating your decision , an after-the-fact exercise that engages a conscious inventory of the lessons learned. Coming to terms with your pick , always cognizant of the reality ...

How To Avoid 8 Common Performance Evaluation Pitfalls

As the year comes to a close it's likely time for many business leaders to tackle the annual performance appraisal process. So, here is a good reminder from author Sharon Armstrong about how to avoid eight performance evaluation pitfalls . These are in what I consider is the best chapter of the book The Essential HR Handbook , that she co-authored with Barbara Mitchell. 1. Clustering everyone in the middle performance-rating categories 2. Overlooking flaws or exaggerating the achievements of favored employees 3. Excusing substandard performance or behavior because it is widespread 4. Letting one characteristic - positive or negative - affect your overall assessment 5. Rating someone based on the company he or she keeps 6. Rating someone based on a grudge you are holding 7. Rating someone based on a short time period instead of the entire evaluation period 8. Rating everyone high, to make you look good There's ot...

5 Tips For Generating Ideas From Employees

Your employees have lots of ideas. So, be sure you provide the forums and mechanisms for your employees to share their ideas with you. Hold at least a few brainstorming sessions each year, as well. And, when you are brainstorming with your employees, try these five tips: Encourage ALL ideas. Don't evaluate or criticize ideas when they are first suggested. Ask for wild ideas. Often, the craziest ideas end up being the most useful. Shoot for quantity not quality during brainstorming. Encourage everyone to offer new combinations and improvements of old ideas.

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog