How decisive are you?

How decisive are you? People like decisive leaders who are clear and quick to act. Even children like firm, clear, decisive parents. It makes them feel safe.

What kind of decision maker are you?

Do you cogitate over decision making, losing momentum or opportunities?
Do you take thoughtful but decisive action that either makes or saves you time, money or people costs?

How decisive is your business?

Is it agile, nimble and quick to move, taking advantage of possibilities and opportunities?
Do you have a neat set of filters or values to help you make decisions quickly?
- Rotary International has a great set of filters for decision-making, called The Four Way Test:
  - Is it the truth?
  - Is it fair to all concerned?
  - Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
  - Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

How decisive are you? Do this exercise to examine your decisiveness

Here is a simple dip-stick exercise to examine the speed and outcomes of your decision making:

Fold a piece of paper in half vertically
Title the left hand column: Decisive
- Write down any decisive decisions you have made in the past year and how they benefitted you in terms of time, opportunity, money or people
Title the right hand column: Indecisive
- Write down all the decisions you have been stalling on making, or decisions you were slow to make
- Bullet point all the costs of in time, money, opportunity and people under each one
This should give you an interesting picture of how decisive you are, or not

I’m not saying that every lost opportunity or unmade decision is a problem. Perhaps it just wasn’t high on your list of priorities at the time, or maybe you had very good reasons for taking extra long pouring over the decision, and that may have been in your favour.

Interestingly, the speed of decision-making varies dramatically among individuals based on their net worth:

Average individuals agonise over decisions for months and years
Millionaires take a few minutes to make a decision
Billionaires take just a few seconds.

I’m not advocating making rash and irresponsible decisions in haste but, it makes you think, doesn’t it?

Do you have values filters for decision-making?

Often high-net worth individuals have a very clear set of filters for making decisions of any kind. If something crops up that doesn’t meet the criteria, they take it off the list quickly, creating time and space for things that they consider closer to their set of priorities.