Posts Tagged ‘decision making’

As we start out on a new year, we all have great plans about what we will achieve in the year ahead. Having recently surveyed my subscribers, there seem to be 8 key barriers they highlight to achieving in 2012.

So what were the 8 most common barriers and what do I suggest they do to address them?

Barrier 1: Time

One of the most common barriers was the idea that people don’t have the time. The reality is very different. The truth is the reason why people don’t have the time is they fail to make something a priority. We all have to decide what we want to do with the 24 hours we have available in each day.

Barrier 2: Poor Communication Skills

Communication for me is about getting your point across effectively; both verbally and in writing and, even more importantly, learning to listen. There is an abundance of support in this area if you just seek it out.

Barrier 3: The Economy, Availability Of Resources And Opportunities

Let’s not pretend that the global economy is in good shape; we all know it is not. At the same time perhaps this is the time to take control of your own destiny. If you always wait for someone else to sort you out, you might miss the boat and end up staying stuck for ever. Take control of what you can influence.

Barrier 4: Clarity And Uncertainty

If we are not clear about what we want, it is always going to be difficult to achieve it. Take the time to get clear and then do something to move forward even if you are uncertain of the outcome.

Barrier 5: Finding Fault In Others

It is easy to look externally to justify your lack of progress. This might be the case some of the time but often it is seeking to blame someone else for what you are not willing to do.

Barrier 6: Throwing In The Towel

Success and achievement is a marathon, not a sprint. If you are not willing to persevere and persist, you will never reach your peak.

Barrier 7: Lack Of Skills

Whenever you have a skills deficiency you have two choices. Get the support to get the skills or accept you are not going to progress. The choices you make determine your results.

Barrier 8: Procrastinating

My experience is that procrastinating just delays, gets you frustrated and stops you achieving. Get off the fence and start taking decisions and action now.

The Reality: It is easy to come up with 101 excuses for not achieving. In truth, if you keep taking decisions, taking action, get the skills and support you need, you greatly increase your chances of success.

Duncan Brodie helps professional people to fulfil their career potential so that they get the rewards and recognition they desire. Sign up for his free audio masterclass at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk.

So we were down to the last six in The Apprentice UK last night.

The teams were tasked with buying stock, selling it, noticing what was selling, re-investing in what was proving popular and making as much as they could.

Melody was team leader on one team and Natasha on the other team.

Natasha’s team triumphed but it was a very close.

As always there were lessons to be learned.

Listen To Instructions

Lord Sugar made it crystal clear that he was looking for the teams to re-invest and despite this both teams seemed reluctant to do this.  When you are given a clear instruction you need to pay attention.

You Need To Be Willing To Take A Risk

The winning team were actually fined £100 in the boardroom for lacking courage and not being willing to take any risk.  In business and in leadership roles you need to get comfortable with balanced risk taking.

Think Before You Act

Melody and Helen were trying to sell to retailers (even one which was a pound shop) even though it was blatantly obvious that they needed to be selling to individuals.

Choose Wisely

Susan decided to go to an upmarket part of London to sell low cost bedding door to door.  Decisions that you make can either make or break in terms of results so choose wisely.

The Bottom Line: In business and in leadership roles you need to be willing to listen, make smart choices and get comfortable with risk.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professional people to become highly effective leaders and managers.  Sign up for his free audio e-course Leadership Success here

Decisions are the catalyst to actions which in turn are the catalyst to results. As a leader or manager your success depends on your ability to take decisions. So how can you make better decisions?

1. Get clear on the result or outcome that you want from the decision.
2. Generate sufficient options first rather than committing to the first idea that you come up with.
3. Weigh up the pros and cons of each option rationally.
4. Listen to your gut feel or intuition.
5. Don’t let fear of failure or getting it wrong prevent you from making decisions.
6. Decide, act and refine. A less than perfect action or decision is better than no decision.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers. You can sign up for his free audio e-course at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk

Well The Apprentice week 2 was broadcast here in the UK last night.  While in previous groups there have been some strong personalities, the girl’s team demonstrated perfectly how not to operate as a team. 

So what were the real learning points?

People need to listen to each other rather than talk over each other all of the time.  Yet in truth I bet some of this is happening every day in organisations across the globe.

You need to speak up if you don’t agree with something and explain your reasons.  Many of the people said that they thought it would not work but they did not give specifics on why not.

Use the resources at your disposal.  Some team members were shipped off the Brighton to do research yet they did not appear to seek any feedback on the viability or otherwise of the book reader from what we saw on camera.

Don’t stand in the wings and criticise later.  The book stand seemed to become the product choice almost by default, perhaps in the absence of other unique ideas.  Team members were critical of the choice even when they had not offered any credible alternatives.

It takes courage to lead a team.  Did the project manager get everything right, well no.  At the same time she kept focus on the task despite the mayhem.

Decisions need to be taken.  Delaying taking decisions just shortens the time for implementation.  We always need to remember diminishing returns and the fact that the extra thinking time often makes little difference to the final solution.

I wondered what learning points you would add if you watched this episode?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to realise their professional potential by helping them to become highly effective leaders and managers.  To sign up for his free audio e-course click here.

As a leader, you need to be willing to take decisions. So how can you get better at taking decisions?

1. Avoid jumping too quickly to solution mode.
2. Weigh up the pros and cons and then act.
3. Remember, a 70% perfect decision is much better than no decision.
4. Never forget that it is much easier to modify something you have than start with a blank canvas.
5. Accept that you will never have perfect information.
6. Don’t let fear stop you.

What else would you add?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

You want to be a successful leader or manager, right?

Of course you do but, despite this, it is surprising just how many people stop themselves from being successful.

So how can you start achieving more success?

Start taking DECISIONS (the ‘D’ in DAR)

We all have lots of choices available to us. Choices are great but it is decisions that get things moving. So if you want to get more success, start taking DECISIONS.

ACT on decisions

Decisions are great and can be hugely invigorating and motivating but the key thing you must do is take ACTION. It is the actions which move you forward, provide the channel for feedback on what is and what is not working. Make a habit of taking ACTION on DECISIONS if you want more success.

REMEMBER: DECISIONS + ACTIONS = RESULTS

RESULTS don’t happen by chance. They are a direct consequence of the decisions and actions you take. If you don’t stop using temporary staff for example, your outlay on salary costs is never going to change. Similarly, if you have a great idea for a product but never take it to the launch stage, you are never going to generate revenues.

The Bottom Line

If you are struggling to deliver as a leader or manager, take time out to review whether you are really taking decisions and then acting on decisions. You might be surprised what a difference simple changes can make.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Today is D Day.

D for me in terms of leadership success is about:

• Direction setting
• Determining the priorities
• Deciding, when you have many options
• Delegating effectively
• Delivering results

What else would you add?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

In week 4 of The Apprentice, the teams were tasked with developing, producing and selling two natural beauty products.

The teams were mixed up again, with Noorul leading what turned out to be the winning team and Paula leading the losing team.  The big learning point from this week was that it is often the most basic of mistakes that can be the most costly.

So let’s compare both of the teams.  As a team leader, Noorul was clearly not leading and any time where a decision needed to be made he looked like a rabbit in the headlights.  There was absolutely nothing in the way of creativity and the product, particularly the soap was awful.  When it came to selling he just could not do it, despite the fact that in one of the clips he would rate himself 10 out 10 when it came to selling.  Yet despite all of this he and his team delivered a profit of just under £500.

Paula by contrast was a great team leader.  She took decisions, made things happen, a good example being the sale of the remaining stock as a single batch.  She was creative and pretty dynamic on the whole.  So what was the big mistake that was made?  Choosing a hugely expensive fragrance and not considering the financial consequences.

So what in summary are the leadership lessons can we learn form this week’s show?

1. A great product, with good marketing and selling is not enough
2. Crunching the numbers might be dull but essential to running any successful organisation
3. Delegation need to be clear and unambiguous
4. It is important to be self aware
5. When in a situation of conflict, choose your tactics wisely
6. Not being an expert in something is not a defence.  If you are the leader, the buck stops with you.

You can watch The Apprentice in the UK every Wednesday evening at 9pm or on the BBCiplayer

Decision making is a key role for any manager or leader.  Surprisingly many people struggle when it comes to taking decisions.  This might be due to:

• Fear of failure

• Lack of a structured approach

• Procrastinating

• Lack of clarity

Whatever the barriers, there are 6 steps that you can follow when taking any decision.

1. Problem Definition

Before you can start to take any decisions, you need to be absolutely clear the problem you are trying to reach a decision on.  One simple technique is just to write out in a sentence what the problem is that you need to take a decision on.

2. Assess the implications

All decisions have implications.  If it is a decision at work, it has implications for you, your peers, your team and your superiors.  Depending on the decision (e.g. a promotion at work) it may even have implications for your family, especially if it involves relocation.

3. Explore different perspectives

Perspectives are simply different lenses through which you look at the problem.  By exploring different perspectives you start to get a feel for those that you are most attracted to.

4. Get clear on your ideal outcome

When you are faced with a big decision, it is easy to get lost in the detail and circumstances.  An alternative is to get clear on your ideal outcome and use this ideal outcome to inform your choices.  Imagine you aspire to be a CFO of a Top 100 company.  By having clarity on your outcome, you can make choices on promotions and experience linked to this ideal outcome.

5. Weigh up pros and cons

Another way of looking at a decision is to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each of the options open to you.  Simply listing the advantages and disadvantages of each option is a powerful way of moving forward on decisions.

6. Decide and act

Once you have gone through the previous 5 steps, commit to a choice or course of action and start to make it happen. To avoid procrastination, give yourself permission to be okay with any failings that might arise.

At the end of the day there is no magic formula for decision making.  Following some simple steps and acting can however move you into the realm of effective decision maker.

A successful leader needs to have a range of skills.  In the currently challenging economic climate there are some skills which will be more important than others.  The first of these is decision making.  In 2009 you are likely to be faced with more decisions than ever.  These decisions might include:

• Should you cut the number of staff you employ?
• If you need to reduce the number of people you employ, who should you keep and who should you let go?
• What investments are you going to make in the busineess and what investments are you going to put on hold?
• What markets or areas of business do you need to get out off?
• What incentives or promotions must you offer to attract or retain customers?

No matter what the decision, it is important that you are ready to take these decisions and act on them.  Procrastination in challenging times is not an option.  Remember, decisions lead to actions and and actions lead to results.

So what gets in the way of you taking decisions and what difference would it make to your success if you started taking decisions?