Make the connection today.
Cathi Douglas Communications
  • Home
  • About
    • Resume
    • Testimonials
    • Awards and Honors
    • Community Service
    • Strategic Communications
  • Clients
  • Samples
    • Feature Writing
    • Marketing / Public Relations
    • Higher Education
    • Health Care
    • Financial
    • Nonprofit
    • Orange County Stories
    • Newswriting
  • Archive
  • Blog
  • Contact

Not So Fast: Decision-Making in a Rapidly Changing Landscape

8/4/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
We’ve all had bosses who make obvious snap judgments, rapid decisions and reach knee-jerk conclusions. Their fast talk is sometimes interpreted as sophisticated wisdom – or it could mean just the opposite.

Quick-fire decision-making, in fact, does not inspire confidence in a leader’s ability to provide stable, strategic solutions for the long haul, one business expert notes.

In fact, writes Mark Chussil in a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review, the willingness to slow down and carefully consider all options is what separates good decision-makers from bad ones.

Chussil, founder and CEO of Advanced Competitive Strategies Inc., advises Fortune 500 companies on strategic thinking. “There’s a difference between someone who’s unsure after serious contemplation and someone who’s unsure after a quick pick… between someone who’s confident after laboring over a thoughtful decision and someone who’s confident with a snap judgment.”

In a recent experiment Chussil found that respondents with doubts who took their time in reaching conclusions were the best-performing group. This group tended to be younger and the majority of them were female.

Perhaps, he thinks, age is the reason – we gain confidence over time but maybe not skill. Maybe males have too much confidence and females not enough. In any case, the slow-to-decide group was most successful.

Other groups discovered that what they thought was the answer simply would not work. “It’s not that the managers didn’t care or were incompetent,” Chussil says. “It’s that they were overconfident. When you think you know the answer, you sincerely believe it’s a waste of time to keep looking for it. It feels like continuing to search for your keys after you’ve found them.”

The ability to go beyond the tried-and-true requires extra grit, daring and spunk that only the mentally toughest people have, notes Travis Bradberry in “15 Habits of Mentally Tough People.” In coming to conclusions at a strategic pace, mentally tough people exhibit true confidence as opposed to the bombastic false confidence some leaders use to mask their doubts.

So how do prospective leaders and new managers cultivate the intellectual fortitude necessary to reach the right decisions?

Bradberry notes that mentally tough people embrace change and are constantly adapting, capitalizing on the opportunities that change creates without fear of failure. Willing to take risks, they are supremely self-aware and embrace failures without obsessing about loss.

Extraordinary leaders rarely waste energy on jealousy and take other people’s opinions with a grain of salt. They let go of grudges and remain relentlessly positive.

Their ‘not-so-fast’ approach to decision-making prompts ‘what if?’ queries and encourages strategic thinking, Chussil says. Methodical reasoning, then, is what separates the good decision-makers from the bad.

1 Comment

    Cathi Douglas, APR

    These resources are provided to assist you with your writing, public relations and more.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Communication
    CoronaVirus
    Customer Service
    Emotional Intelligence
    Ethics
    Leadership
    Networking
    Organization
    Productivity
    Professional Development
    Public Relations
    Racism
    Renewal
    Speaking/Interviewing
    Tutorial
    Writing

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

National Association of Women Business Owners
 




​    Copyright 2021 Cathi Douglas Communications, Inc.  
    Providing seasoned professional public relations services to nonprofit,  higher education and consumer clients.