A Leader’s Guide to Becoming More Decisive

Making decisions is a constant in life, and yet, it often feels like an uphill battle. The good news? Being decisive is a skill that can be honed. In this guide, we’ll uncover strategies to help you become more decisive in both your personal and professional life.

Expand Your Options ⛏️

Decisiveness isn’t about choosing between two obvious paths; it’s about recognizing the multitude of possibilities. Challenge yourself to think creatively. Explore alternatives, consider different perspectives, and expand your horizons. Decisions are seldom black and white.

Create a Decision-Making System ✅

Boost your decisiveness with a well-structured decision-making framework:

Define criteria for a good decision.
Gather information and seek input from others.
Weigh pros and cons thoroughly.

This systematic approach enhances your confidence in decision-making.

Align with Your Values 🧘‍♂

Practice mindfulness and stay present during decision-making. Focus on the moment, eliminate distractions, and make choices that align with your values and goals. Trust your instincts; they often lead you in the right direction.

Seek Support 🤝

When life presents complex decisions, don’t hesitate to lean on friends, family, or mentors. They offer valuable insights and advice, helping you stay true to your long-term objectives.

Empowering Your Team’s Decisions 🌱

In a team, decision-making is a collective effort. Here’s a practical framework for efficient team decisions:

Every decision needs an owner and a timeline. Without ownership, decisions can languish.

Assign decision ownership and set clear deadlines.
Categorize decisions into Type 1 (You decide), Type 2 (You decide with team input), and Type 3 (A team member decides).
Communicate the type clearly to your team and provide guidance accordingly.

This framework streamlines team decision-making, ensuring clarity and accountability.

Guiding Individuals in Decision-Making 🧭

When assisting individuals in their decision-making process, follow these steps:

Clarifying questions from you as a leader:

What is the decision?
What data is required?
Do you possess the data? (If not, obtain it.)
What decision would YOU make with that data?
Do you still need guidance, or have you reached a decision?

If they seek guidance, suggest this structured approach:

The outcome of the decision-maker:

The desired decision.
Supporting data.
Personal recommendation based on the data.
A request for agreement.

Lessons Learned 🎓

Becoming more decisive is a journey that demands time and practice. By implementing these strategies, you can confidently and effectively make choices, whether you’re tackling jet lag or life’s complex decisions.

As Cicero wisely put it, “More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. It will steal you blind.” Embrace decisiveness and seize your opportunities.

D.E.A.L. Efficient of Effective? 🎯

The DEAL framework by Tim Ferriss offers a dynamic approach to achieving productivity that blends both working smart and hard, in contrast to the common belief that one can choose between the two.

A fundamental question to consider is whether your work is:

efficient or effective?

Often, we find ourselves caught in the trap of busyness, confusing it with productivity.

DEAL, an acronym, offers a practical guideline for navigating this balance.

📌 Definition (Smart): The first component of DEAL emphasizes the importance of clarity and precision. This is the “smart” part of working, where you define your goals, objectives, and priorities with utmost clarity. It’s about ensuring that your efforts are targeted towards the right tasks and projects, aligning your work with your long-term vision.

📌 Elimination (Hard): Elimination involves removing non-essential tasks and distractions that hinder your progress, which often requires diligent effort. You can do it by identifying the 20% of tasks that drive 80% of your growth and letting go of the rest, as wasting time on tasks that don’t align with your goals is counterproductive.

📌 Automation (Hard): Automation focuses on streamlining repetitive processes and tasks, harnessing technology and systems to work more efficiently. These two elements, ‘Elimination’ and ‘Automation,’ represent the “hard” work required to maximise productivity.

📌 Liberation (Smart): The final stage, ‘Liberation,’ takes us back to the “smart” approach. Once you’ve streamlined and automated tasks and eliminated unnecessary work, you’re liberated to focus your efforts on high-impact activities that will drive significant results. This involves smartly allocating your time, energy, and resources to tasks that matter most.

In essence, the DEAL framework doesn’t dismiss the value of hard work; rather, it advocates for working hard on the right things, which is the core essence of productivity for new managers aiming to make the most of their time and efforts.

🤓 Tips & Tricks

How to minimise the current window ⤵️

You want to increase your productivity and open one app full screen to cover some other apps in background. You finished working with that one window and want to go back to your next tasks.
How to minimise the current open window?

Keyboard shortcut: ⌘ + M

💡 Pro tip: To re-open the minimised window:

hit: command + tab.
release only tab button
keep pressing command button and press option button

🌐 Recommended read

How big is a kilobyte?
https://evanhahn.com/how-big-is-a-kilobyte/?utm_source=unknownews
tl;dr: either 1000 bytes or 1024 bytes, but there’s no consensus. As best I can tell, there is no broad consensus on how large a kilobyte is. Some say that a kilobyte is 1000 bytes while others say it’s 1024 bytes.

Are you a Software Developer or a Software Engineer? 📈👩‍💻👨‍💻
https://cult.honeypot.io/reads/are-you-a-software-developer-or-a-software-engineer/
Read the full article to gain valuable insights into software development estimations and become a more effective contributor to your team’s success. 📈👩‍💻👨‍💻 #SoftwareDevelopment #Estimations #ProjectManagement #LinkedInPost”

‘I get a lemonade for every 1,000 hits!’ The rise of the child podcast superstars
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/20/i-get-a-lemonade-for-every-1000-hits-the-rise-of-the-child-podcast-superstars
‘When I found out I’d won an award, I ran around like crazy’ … Jack Andrews, nine, presents Jack to the Future.

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