Deciding Cautiously

Slow to decide?

• What are the requirements of your role for making decisions?
• Is there a premium on fast, risky decisions versus careful, precise solutions?
• Have you established what is acceptable for managers at your level?
• Can you pinpoint what it is that inclines you to make slow decisions?
• Do you set yourself very high quality standards? Are they too high?
• Are you concerned about the consequences of making mistakes?
• Do you have a boss who is quite unforgiving for mistakes?
• How can you get more positive feedback? When you review your performance or get feedback, it helps to say what went well, not just what did not go well.
• Do you take it too much upon yourself to make decisions? Could you find a way of involving others without showing a lack of decision making confidence in yourself?
• What kinds of decisions do you find easier/harder to make? Decisions affecting people? Certain types of task decision? If you find some types of decision easier to make, you might gain confidence by reminding yourself of this periodically. It is easy to overlook decisions that come easy to you - precisely because they do come easy.
• But you could be better at making decisions than you give yourself credit for.
• Having isolated the kinds of decisions you find harder to make, what can you change about your attitude toward them? While you might be able to point to factors in your environment that inhibit your decision making, you might get further by focusing on what is within your control - that includes how you feel about things.
• Can you identify a role model in the organization who has struggled with similar issues and who you could learn from?
• Mention how much you admire this person's approach rather than moaning about your own. This takes the focus off of you.