Many managers make decisions which were appropriate when they were made, but don’t stand the test of time. For example, you might have promoted someone at an earlier stage of his or her career, but the person didn’t continue to advance as you expected.
Part of good decision making involves thinking ahead and imagining what a decision made today will look like in various future scenarios. This means that some decisions need to be evaluated more thoughtfully and strategically.
This isn’t as easy as it seems, particularly because we make dozens of decisions daily at breakneck speed. After all, who has time to reflect when you’re already on to the next thing?
Granted, many daily decisions can be made spontaneously, and you don’t need to project into that great, unknown future. A quick way to check whether you need to be more thoughtful is to ask a few simple questions:
* What are the long term implications for this decision?
* What has to happen to cause this decision to succeed/derail?
* Is there a better alternative?
Those questions will help as you make new decisions. But what if you would like to “do over” a decision that you made in the past?
Stewing over it isn’t going to help you move ahead, but this is what many executives do. Yes, it might be painful, but you need to face what isn’t working and what will improve if you make a new and better decision.
Many executives live with past decisions that are not only painful, but may drag down the future. It takes courage to make a change. If you address the situation realistically and with integrity, you can move forward.
Thoughtful and authentic decision making isn’t easy, but will guide you to a better future.
Have a great week!
