The past few months of remote work have really started to highlight to me how different leaders and thinkers make their decisions. Varying from speed and style to autonomy, I’ve learned a lot about how I personally like to make decisions and communicate them to the team.
What I’ve found by observing other team members is that the ability to make a decision quickly often comes from leaning on past experiences. They’ve seen this problem before and already solved for it once or twice. For someone that hasn’t gone through that process it can feel like the decision is coming ‘off the cuff’ but really it’s rooted in that history of past experiences that lie beneath the surface of the decision.
This took me a few months to figure out why others were moving quicker than me but this recent revelation helped frame up my reaction to these seemingly ‘quick’ decisions. Without this understanding, I felt confused and honestly inferior or unprepared. I sent many Teams messages to my colleagues asking, ‘Did I miss a meeting or something? What is going on?’
‘Did I miss a meeting?’
Part of this is can be looked at as a lack of clarity from those making the decisions but when you’re moving fast there’s often not time to rehash or pause to explain. I could write a whole other post on bringing up future leaders. If that’d be of interest, let me know in the comments below.
Since a lot of what I’m doing in my day-to-day is new to me, I know I need more time to reflect on the information that’s being presented. I’m very much the type of decision maker that needs to digest new information before giving feedback or making a big decision. Need time to think, stand at a whiteboard with some headphones and just soak it all in.
So that’s what I’m doing.
I’m pushing others around me to fall into my decision making process. My teammates are accustomed to someone more experienced making quick decisions so I often get short pings asking for feedback on topics I’m unfamiliar with. I’ve started to push for quick calls to get caught up or longer virtual working sessions to solve the problem together. This approach is well received by most. It’s all about how I communicate why I need this so I can be more effective for them to help them succeed.
The next section is purely for personal use but you might find it useful. In exploring my own decision making process, I find it so effective to write things down to better understand them. So I’ve outlined how I make decisions to help me learn more about myself.
My personal decision making process is: Intake, Digest and Reflect, Summarize, and Move On.
Intake
Digest and Reflect
Summarize
Move On
This is my own made up framework
Let me explain.
Intake: Understanding what problem we are trying to solve is often rushed in the name of progress. Leaving us with false assumptions and weak frameworks further on in the process. A background in consulting will teach you to ask questions. Often the same question but framed differently in order to look at the same problem different ways. A strong understanding of the background and context sets me up to properly frame the problem going into the next step of my process.
Digest and Reflect: For big problems, I like to sit and think on them. I do this for problems that are ‘irreversible’. Most decisions a reversible – meaning you can easily change course if they are wrong without much consequence. For those that are difficult to change or carry consequences for changing, I prefer to take my time.
Digest and Reflect also has a big component of collaboration as part of it. Bring in those looking for directional decisions into the process. Teach them how to think through these problems so they are better prepared for the next decision. Next time they can present their opinion rather than just asking for a problem to be solved.
This is also important because I can’t be an expert in everything. So let those who are experts in their field drive the implementation and details of the solution while I drive the overall direction and push for alignment across different parties.
Summarize: What you’ll often find from me after I’ve digested and reflected on a problem is an email bulleting out the problem, consequences, and my decision with reasons behind them. The email itself is less for the team and more for me. It forces me to think clearly and thoroughly through all aspects of the problem. Seeing the problem laid out in front of me allows me to look at the problem from all angles rather than them bouncing around in my head.
This is what I’ve found those that are able to make quick decisions with authority are great at. They have strong mental frameworks and can do this analysis in their head. Typically engineers by training can setup these mental models, go through their checklist and come out the other side with their thinking.
My mind isn’t wired that way so writing out the my approach helps me get organized and clarifies my approach.
Move On: Once a decision is made, move on to the next task. Don’t linger on it. Don’t give it a second thought. You went through your process. You controlled what you could. The rest is out of your control so move on. When I send a big summary email, I typically walk away from my computer. A physical separation helps my mind move on to the next task at hand. There are too many decisions that are fighting for your time in a given day/week. Don’t let this one occupy any more brain space than you’ve already committed to it. Go solve the next problem and the next.
How do you make decisions? Do you have a strong mental model for decision making or are you like me and need to write things down to see the bigger picture?
If you struggle to make decisions in your day-to-day, I recommend intentional practice. Look for different frameworks to see what works best for you. You might have the best instincts and start to doubt yourself if you go through a long exercise like mine. The only way to find out is to test, experiment, and reflect to know what works best for you.
I’d love to learn about your process. Leave a comment below!