The Decisive Leader: Make Decisions with Conviction

Being decisive is a great trait to have as a leader. If you can consistently make timely decisions, take action with confidence, and seize opportunities quickly, you’ll put yourself in a better position to achieve your goals.

In addition, ensuring prompt decisions and effective communication will create a more positive working environment for your team. Decisiveness inspires confidence and when your team has confidence in you, they are more likely to follow your guidance.

On the other hand, indecisiveness causes uncertainty, ambiguity and negativity. If you constantly overthink simple things, swing back and forth over basic decisions, and second-guess yourself at every turn, colleagues will lose trust in you.

What makes a decisive leader?

Decisive leadership is not about arrogance. It’s not about making on-the-spot decisions based on assumptions rather than facts. Decisive leadership requires critical thinking, strategy, courage and follow-through.

Critical thinking: Some decisions will be straightforward and these can usually be made relatively quickly without too much debate. However, some decisions will require you to have greater insight, expertise, and knowledge. You’ll need to apply critical thinking and involve the relevant people in the process.

Strategy: When making decisions, it’s important to consider the bigger picture. You can make great decisions but if they don’t align with the organisation’s mission, vision and values, then you could be setting yourself up for failure. 

Courage: You will never know for sure whether a decision was 100% correct. There’s always a risk that it could be the wrong decision or that there was a better way. However, somebody, at some point, has to make a decision otherwise things never move forward. Being decisive means having the courage to take on that responsibility and also being able to identify (and correct) poor decisions if you make them.

Follow-through: Just because a decision has been made doesn’t mean it will be implemented.You need to follow through on your decisions with conviction and action.Collaborate, delegate, or outsource where necessary, but if change is required, be prepared to make it happen.  

How to be more decisive

As with any skill, the best way to learn is through practice. If you struggle with decisiveness, start small – practice making unimportant day-to-day decisions quickly. For example, when you go to a restaurant or coffee shop, give yourself a limit of 60 seconds to decide what to order.  

The better you get at making these small decisions without hesitation, the easier you’ll find it to act decisively when it comes to the more important stuff.   

Understand your barriers: If you’re struggling with a particular decision, look at why you are struggling so you can overcome your reluctance. Perhaps you don’t feel like you have enough experience to make this decision. Maybe you made a poor decision recently and it has knocked your confidence. Perhaps whichever option you choose will have negative consequences for somebody and you’re worried about the fallout. Understanding why you’re finding a decision tough is the first step in moving forward.

Don’t be scared of failure: Fear of failureis a common cause of indecisiveness – nobody likes making mistakes. However, inaction can be just as disastrous as the wrong action, so you can’t let fear of failure hold you back. Learn to view mistakes as learning opportunities – they help you build resilience and experience. If you stop fearing mistakes, you’ll become more decisive.

Examine your past decisions: Look at how you’ve made decisions in the past. Did you adopt a strategic approach or did you simply trust your gut? Which decisions worked out well and which had negative consequences? Would a different decision have had better outcomes?

Gather the relevant data and insights: Don’t rush important decisions.Do thenecessary research and seek input from the relevant people. Being decisive does not mean you have to make decisions without any help from anyone. Other people can help you see your decision from angles you may not have considered.

Practice thinking strategically: Choose a non-urgent decision and narrow down your options. Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages or pros and cons of each option. Evaluate the potential outcomes and consequences, considering both the short-term and long-term implications, and weighing the benefits and risks associated with each choice.

Don’t be afraid to trust your instincts: Not every decision has to be based on reason or logic.While there is always a time and place for critical thinking, there are also times when gut instinct can be a good guide. Don’t be afraid to trust your own judgement.  

Set deadlines: It’s tempting to procrastinate over non-urgent decisions but this won’t help you develop decisiveness. Set deadlines for decisions and share those deadlines with someone so you feel accountable for meeting them.

Keep a clear head: Some decisions are complicated and they can become stressful, If you’re feeling overwhelmed by a particular decision, take a break from it and clear your mind – go for a walk, work on something else for a while, or sleep on it. Come back to it with renewed focus.

Ditch perfection: Avoid overanalysis and the need for perfection and concentrate on the benefits of your decision. Will it get you closer to your goal? How will it benefit your team or the organisation?

Evaluate: Learning to make decisions is a process so after you make a big decision, evaluate it. How did you approach the decision? Did you have the right information? What were the consequences for you, your team, the organisation, or the customers? What would you do differently next time? Even a negative outcome is useful as it helps you make better decisions in the future.

Don’t be too hard on yourself: You can’t get it right all the time, so forgive yourself for bad decisions. Take ownership and accountability for your mistakes and learn from them. A wrong decision is often better than no decision at all. Wrong decisions can be fixed, but indecisiveness will damage your reputation and the trust your colleagues have in you.

Benefits of developing decisiveness

The benefits of decisiveness are not limited to the workplace. Being decisive can help you in both your professional and personal life.

Increase self-confidence: As you become more decisive, your confidence will build and you’ll become better at dealing with self-doubt. You’ll spend less time second-guessing yourself and you’ll improve your critical thinking skills.  

Build resilience: When you make a wrong decision, you’ll learn from it. This will help you build resilience which can benefit you professionally and personally.  

Develop problem-solving skills: As you develop your decisiveness, you’ll learn to apply logic to decision-making, which will also help you develop your problem-solving skills. You’ll also become more adept at thinking strategically, rather than impulsively.

Reduce anxiety: Overthinking or getting bogged down with decisions can cause unnecessary anxiety. It’s hard to focus on other things when your mind keeps coming back to a big decision you’re faced with. By learning to be more decisive, you can reduce anxiety and stress, allowing you to be a better leader.

Developing Decisive Leaders

As a manager or leader, there’s always something new to learn or a skill you can improve and develop. Organisations need to support managers and leaders in this development, but you also need to invest in yourself.

Getting formal leadership and management training will not only help you build your leadership skills, it will also help you grow in confidence, and increase your chances of career progression.  

Alternative Partnership delivers ILM-accredited Leadership and Management training programmes to support you and your teams in gaining formal, nationally recognised qualifications.

Find out more about our current ILM courses here or get in touch to discuss how our services could benefit you.

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