One of the biggest growth opportunities we see for professionals in our corporate leadership workshops is with those who want to be effective team leaders but haven’t quite figured out the formula. Being a leader is tough. You’re not only managing organizational goals, but you’re also managing people, which means that you sometimes have to get creative in keeping your team on track while keeping your teams happy.

One area team leaders get bogged down with is decision-making. Making decisions for ourselves is tough enough, but when we are responsible for other people’s lives and our organization’s successes, the stakes are even higher. Effective leaders learn to make decisions with more ease over time. Here’s how.

Effective Leadership Skills: A Decision-Making Starter Map

One of the hallmarks of successful people is that they know how and when to make decisions. To this end, the following are three things you can do to help you make the right decisions – quicker:

Note: Of course, “right” is subjective; what we mean by "right" in this case is making the best decision with the tools/information you have available at the time.

1. Weigh Your Options: For example, let’s say that one of the decisions facing you as a team leader is whether or not take a territory from one sales rep and give it to another. In this case, you have two options, (i) let Sales Rep A keep the territory; or (ii) give it to Sales Rep B.

So, how do you decide what to do? This question brings us to the next step, which is to . . .

2. Predict the Outcome: This step causes confusion for many because an obvious question may be, “Can you really predict an outcome?” The short answer is -- that’s not important.

Why?

Well, look at it this way, the fact that you’re even considering taking a territory away from Sales Rep A to give to Sales Rep B means that you’ve come to some kind of conclusion about how that territory is being handled; otherwise, it wouldn’t even be on your radar, right?

So the secret to success at this stage is to ask yourself some hard questions, such as,

Why am I considering this doing this? 

What are the consequences of doing so?

Am I willing to move forward once I’ve made the decision?

3. Evaluate the Risk. Risk is what keeps many of us paralyzed – even when we’ve evaluated the pros and cons of a given situation and we have accumulated all of the data, it can be hard to make the leap and actually make your decision known.

While they may be afraid of risk, effective leaders realize that it’s part of the job and they move forward anyway. These leaders are able to gauge what they have, what they need, and how badly they want to achieve the desired outcome. They can be resolute in the decision that they’ve made because they are acting from a place of strength and can back up their rationale.

The key to success at this stage is to know your strengths, your talents, what motivates you and use them to overcome obstacles.

In short, when you know and trust yourself – your gut instincts – you’ll become more confident with decision-making and a stronger leader.

Conclusion

Making better decisions is a skill that can be developed, much like being an effective team leader. Of course, there are many nuances that you’ll need to develop in order to do this. These three steps are a point from which to start.

Join us this Friday, July 20, for a StrengthsGenius.coach complimentary webinar: How To Make Successful Decisions with Ease and Confidence

The competitive landscape of business today is constantly changing. Technology and globalization allows for exponentially more progress to be made, but it also means that our tasks and goals are constantly changing. Besides making short-term tactical decisions, one must be able to comfortably and confidently execute tasks requiring long-term, strategic decision-making. 

Make Successful Decisions With Ease and Confidence is designed to help you understand what is at the heart of all decisions and why we have difficulty making them.

You will understand the decision-making process from start to finish and learn:

·  The beginning process of problem solving

·  How to stop second guessing your decisions

·  2 other reasons why decision making can be difficult 

Simple Registration Here

(There will not be anything "sold" on this call).

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