Successful entrepreneurs rarely teach business or management classes at universities.

Successful business professors are rarely successful in business.

A key reason for this? Successful entrepreneurs (and leaders who think entrepreneurially) make decisions differently than business professors.

Entrepreneurial leaders aren’t necessarily smarter or know more. They often don’t. But they know how to achieve results.

Here Are the Five Keys for How Successful, Entrepreneurial Leaders Make Decisions

1. Faster: Successful leaders make decisions more quickly. They realize that leadership is far more like writing an essay than like solving a math problem. There is room for adjustments and correction – but only if you start writing.

When I work with leaders who struggle with “analysis paralysis” it’s usually caused by one of two things:

• Fear of making a mistake
• Fear of what others will think

Fear will never produce good decisions.

I’m not a fan of sloppy work, foolish or rash decisions.

But there is more success associated with leaders who weren’t afraid of making a mess than leaders who were afraid to act.

Having said this, making a good decision quickly is a skill that takes two things:

1. You get better at it the more you practice.
2. Good, quick decisions don’t come from a vacuum. They come from preparation.

 2. Alignment with Values and Purpose: The clearer you (and your team) are on your value and your purpose – the easier it is to make decisions.

It works like this: A decision-making opportunity comes up, and you ask yourselves:

• Does this decision help express or manifest our values?
• Does this decision help move us towards our purpose?

Is your answer to both questions, “Yes?” What would prevent you from making a decision that helps you live out your values and move towards your purpose?

At a minimum, your decisions should never violate your values or pull you off the path for your purpose.

This is why being clear and having honest conversations about your values and purpose (or mission or priorities) as a leader and an organization are so important. They help you make better decisions faster.

3. Criteria for Good Decisions: Sometimes you’ll have options that are in alignment with your values and your purpose – but it might not be obvious which option is the best one.

Having predetermined criteria for decision making will help you identify and make good decisions more quickly.

An example of decision-making criteria often considers:

• Ease of implementation
• Impact or benefit
• Cost
• Financial impacts: ROI, impact on cash flow, potential savings, etc.
• Post-decision flexibility ( being “locked in”)
• Popular support
• Risk

These are just examples. If you are choosing someone for a leadership position you may use a different set of criteria such as:

• Experience
• Skills
• Demographics
• Personality
• Reputation
• Relationships

Get clear on what a good decision will look like, then look at options. This will usually both help you identify more options than you initially were aware of. But it will also help you recognize a good decision more quickly.

In the situation where there is more than one decision maker, having already agreed on a decision-making criterion will go a long way toward helping make good decisions, faster.

4. Identify Options – At least 3. But I like 20: People make too big of a deal about coming up with options. As if coming up with an idea is a once in a lifetime event, and they might not want to squander their one idea here.

I recommend, quickly coming up with at least three options. At least three different, possible solutions or answers to the question. That should be standard.

For tough situations, I’ll often give clients a sticky note and 15 minutes. I’ll tell them to write down the first 20 ideas that come to them. They don’t have to be good, bad or even possible. Just the ideas that come to mind.

They always look shocked, as if I just asked them to sign up for a marathon. “Twenty ideas? No one has twenty ideas! I’ll use up all my ideas for the rest of my life!”

Then they start to write. They charge through the first handful of ideas. Then they get stuck, ask if they can quit, and start tapping their pens and looking at me like they didn’t hire me to be a jerk.

After they’ve forced themselves through the next 5-8 ideas…the dam bursts. A bunch of ideas just start popping out.

Usually, the idea they end up choosing is the one (or a combination) of the last few ideas they had.

I don’t know why it works like this, but it does. Reliably. And it takes less than 15 minutes.

But do this after you’ve gotten clear about your Value and Purpose and after you’ve developed decision-making criteria. That restriction, interestingly, will help you come up with more ideas. And once you’ve got a list – the good ideas will be more obvious.

5. A Sense of Peace: About 25 years ago, a mentor of mine gave me advice. She said, “Don’t do anything that causes you to lose your peace.”

I’ll be honest. At that time, I didn’t know what she meant or how to practice that. But I tried to listen and understand. What I’ve discovered is that this is something that takes practice and reflection. So, you might not get it your first time out.

I started paying attention to decisions and choices I made – even small ones. I started to ask the question, “Does doing or deciding this cause me to stay at peace? Or am I feeling disturbed, dissonant or agitated because of the choice I made?”

I’ve learned that it’s very helpful to stop making choices that cause me to lose my peace.

This doesn’t mean that I don’t make hard choices. Even painful choices. Being at peace doesn’t mean things aren’t difficult or painful.

Side note: Most people experience a sense of “pre-decision” anxiety. This has now been scientifically identified. Before decisions, many people experience a level of anxiety. Then they make a decision, any decision, to relieve themselves of that anxiety.

That’s not the kind of peace that I’m talking about. That’s a false peace.

What I think my mentor meant, was that some decisions keep us in alignment with our values and our purpose. When we are out of alignment – we feel it.

We can’t lead well when we are out of alignment with ourselves. Keep your peace.

Three Practices That Help with Making Faster Decisions

1. Habits: Barack Obama became known for having a simple wardrobe. His reason was to cut down on decision making. He needed to make so many decisions every day – he didn’t want his clothing choices to consume any of his bandwidth.

For example, I eat a half-dozen boiled eggs every morning. I never think about what I’ll have for breakfast. I can eat them while driving my kids to school. And dairy farmers like me.

Create habits around everyday actions – so that you don’t have to spend your energy and attention on making routine decisions.

2. Mentors & Coaches: The highest performers in the world, in any arena, have mentors and coaches. The people who say, “It’s alone at the top,” are people who’ve isolated themselves.

From your perspective, it might look like they are a high performer. But they are still paddling in puddles compared to the giants.

Additionally, they usually plateau, get weird or get into trouble.

You should be surrounded by people who can mentor and coach you, in different areas, to continue to grow.

Mentors and coaches challenge your decisions, bring in outside perspective to your decision-making process and help hold you accountable to the decisions you make.

3. Reflection: Being able to reflect on the results of a decision is an important practice. It’s just a process of asking questions:

• Did this accomplish what it was intended to achieve?
• How do I feel about the process that we went through?
• Do I have peace?
• Is there anything I will change the next time I make that kind of decision?

The Practical Wisdom of Decision Making

Decision making is a muscle and a skill. You practice both. Over time, it gets easier. If you follow the recommendations above, you’ll make better decisions, faster.

This is the art of learning wisdom. Knowing the right decision to make, when and how.

Take good care,

Christian

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