Why is Quick Decision-Making Important?
Life is always about making decisions. Whether it’s a super important business decision, or just what you’re cooking for dinner tonight.
Sadly, it doesn’t matter what type of decision you’re making; the process is most of the time stressful and exhausting.
Making decisions seems particularly challenging when life is at its best and time seems short.
And that’s why quick decision-making is probably one of the most important abilities to have in our fast-paced world.
Data is key to making the best decisions. Start tracking time to drive yours
What is decision-making?
Decision-making is “the process of making choices, especially important choices.” In the workplace, working with people that have decision-making skills will only contribute more effectively to the company.
Effective decision-making is a valuable skill in any workplace, no matter your job.
Having the capability to make good and quick decisions can help you become more productive because it helps you save time and make better use of resources.
Employees face many decisions throughout the workday, so making them quickly but effectively is extremely valuable.
Here are some of the qualities you must have to be good at making quick decisions:
- flexibility
- analytical and critical thinking
- problem-solving
- team player
- strategy
- active listening
- time management
However, most people lack these qualities. It’s very hard to have all of them and be good at making decisions.
The truth is that the perfect solution for our problems rarely exists. And we all know that it’s unrealistic to think otherwise.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t stop many people from looking endlessly for the perfect decision in every situation.
Even though it’s wise and important to lay out all your options, obsessing over a decision won’t allow you to make any progress. And it’ll take a big toll on your business.
Delaying an important decision just slows you down (and sometimes the others who are waiting for your decision) and makes you worry even more.
So, don’t overcomplicate things! Just do it! Otherwise, you’ll feel unproductive because you’re frozen.
There are, indeed, several benefits if you make quicker decisions. Your business will thank you, for sure.
Why making quick decisions is so important?
Save time and money
According to a survey, many people across a range of business sectors consider the time they devote to decision-making ineffective.
“Indeed, respondents at the few companies that excel at decision making, which we call decision-making “winners,” report the ability to perform well on both measures while also seeing better financial results.
Specifically, the winners make good decisions fast, execute them quickly, and see higher growth rates and/or overall returns from their decisions.
What’s more, respondents at these organizations are twice as likely as others to report superior returns from their most recent decisions.”
This skill allows every company to save time and, most of the time, their money!
Increase employees’ competitiveness
Slow decision-making affects not only revenue but also employee engagement.
If you’re in a position where you can’t make any decisions for yourself and always must wait on leadership for approval, you can easily lose motivation.
The strongest drive for professionals is to feel valued and engaged, and central to this is being involved in the decision-making process.
Overtake your competition
If your company takes too long to make decisions, you’re done. It’s awful for businesses to delay delivery.
To truly become successful, you must be better and stay one step ahead of the competition. And for that, your business needs to be agile, active, responsive, and quick.
The quick answer to customers’ needs
If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to remember that you and your business rely on your customers and their needs.
If you discover changes in your customer’s needs, you can’t waste any more time! Your competitors are watching you. Therefore, you absolutely need a fast-decision-making process.
Now that you can clearly see some of the benefits of quick decision-making, we’re going to show you a few tips on how to do it.
How to make fast decisions in 7 steps
- Set clear goals
- Set a deadline
- Be an observer
- Identify your options
- Weigh your options and choose one
- Embrace the possibility of failure
- Review your decision
Here are a few tips that can help you improve your decision-making skills.
1. Set clear goals
For effective and quick decision-making, you must have an objective in mind. You need a clear, concrete, and specific goal.
When you’re in a situation requiring a super quick decision, having a clear goal in mind ahead of time will make that decision much easier.
Unfortunately, it’s not always easy or even possible to plan things ahead of time. Check the rest of our list to see how to overcome that.
2. Set a deadline
If you want to make quick decisions, then setting a decision-making deadline is something you should try! Otherwise, your mind will likely wander to everything else in your life.
So, set time limitations for yourself on each decision you make. And, if you have to use time tracking software to control this deadline, just use it!
3. Be an observer
If you must make a good decision in a short period of time, you don’t have much time to think, let alone set a deadline.
You’ll need to learn to become an observer in situations like these.
You must be able to analyze as much information as possible, and then turn it into action. You can use what you know to make strategic decisions based on the situation.
Be an observer in life, both personally and professionally!
Focus on being conscious and aware within each moment and observe everything and everyone around you.
When you’re paying attention to what you’re facing, you’ll be more likely to make a logical decision.
4. Identify your options
You will probably identify several possible alternatives in the decision process.
List all the possible and desirable alternatives to see which one fits better.
5. Weigh your options and choose one
Imagine how everything would look like if you carried each one of the alternatives to the end. Evaluate whether the need identified would be met or resolved with each alternative.
As you go through this process, certain alternatives will seem better and have a higher potential to reach your goal. Finally, sort your alternatives by priority based on their value.
You’re ready to select the alternative that seems to be the best one for you.
6. Embrace the possibility of failure
This is probably one of the most important tips we will read. How many times have we backed off from deciding based on the likelihood of failure?
To make quick decisions, you must learn to embrace the possibility of failure, no matter what.
We must normalize it; failure is such an important part of life. It’s how we learn, grow, and become better.
So, if you’re making a decision and it turns out to be completely wrong, that’s ok! Note to self: there is no such thing as failure. There are only lessons.
Life is full of choices, and it’s important to make them in the most efficient way possible.
No one makes perfect decisions 100% of the time, and that’s OK. The important thing is action.
Developing quick and effective decision-making skills can set you up for professional and personal success.
7. Review your decision
In this final step, consider the results of your decision and evaluate whether it has resolved the need you identified in Step 1.
If the decision has not met the identified need, you may want to repeat certain steps of the process to make a new decision.
For example, you might want to gather more detailed or somewhat different information or explore additional alternatives.
Conclusion
Even though it’s complicated not to, once you give in to indecision, you open yourself and your business up to all sorts of issues.
Instead of drowning in deliberation and uncertainty, you need to learn how to make good decisions quickly.
Following our tips will help you build your decision-making muscle and become better each day. And remember, accept failure. There’s no such thing as a perfect decision-maker.
So, boost your business success and your own happiness by being more decisive!
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