Making Decisions: Decisive Action vs. Pondering

Many times a day, you will be requested to make decisions on various topics. With experience I have found that certain types of decisions benefit greatly from “thinking time” — while others are pointless to linger on and you’re better off just quickly reaching a decision and going with it.

In evaluating whether to make up your mind quickly or take some time to think, consider the following attributes of the topic at hand:

• Reversability. Would it be easy to undo this if it turns out you are wrong?

• Permanence. Can this be easily tested on a temporary basis?

• Importance Of The Asker. Is this your largest client, or someone who called your office once?

• Access To More Information. Could you easily learn more about what is being asked given some extra time, or are all the facts clear already?

• Front Page News. If you make the wrong decision, is anybody but yourself going to care or notice?

• Audience. If you are a leader, in certain situations you need to quickly make decisions in order to maintain the confidence of those who trust you. On the other hand, are you too susceptible to this feeling?

• Dependencies. Who or what is awaiting your answer in order to make forward progress?

• Emotions. As you consider the question being asked of you, do you feel an emotional response building inside you in response? Would it “feel good” to quickly answer back?

What you find as you quickly consider the above points should guide you toward either quickly making your decision, or toward jotting down a note to think more carefully about the topic before finalizing your thoughts.