Anatomical Decision Making. Head North!

In my personal and professional life, I have observed a pattern with regard to how decisions are made…anatomically.

Starting with the Southern part of our body and heading North…

• Especially in the heat of the moment, the “knee jerk reaction” is very common. This technique employs minimal insight and information when responding to a given situation.
• From there, we may opt to the more sophisticated “seat of the pants” approach, where we use our limited personal experience and judgment to come to a conclusion without considering procedures, planning, or other available technology or input.
• Then, we may advance North to “gut feeling.” At this stage, we utilize intuition, both our own and that of others, coupled with additional data in order to come to a conclusion on how we believe things will turn out.
• Improving upon this practice, we might continue upward to “listen to our heart,” wherein we now allow our deepest emotional inclinations to have a stake in determining next steps.
• Finally, we can move to the final stop in this anatomical journey…where we “make decisions with our head.“

Incorporating the aforementioned components of personal experiences, available information and technology, valued input from many prudent sources, and then mixing in the proper amount of emotion and logic, we arrive at the “best decision:” one derived from your brain’s coordination of all available data points.

This fact-based decision making may take a little more time and discipline, however, our entire anatomy will thank us later.

Problem Solving Simplified

Throughout my career, I’ve observed various strategies for “dealing” with problems, an essential function of leadership:

1. avoid confronting it and hope the issue somehow goes away
2. delegate to subordinates and assume they can fix the issue
3. add the issue to an ominous to-do list and get to it based on priorities
4. face the issue head-on, and promptly resolve it with appropriate intensity

Obviously, certain situations require greater responsiveness and urgency than others.  Regardless, if a situation falls into what you define as a “problem”, your role as a leader is to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Following the protocol outlined below will enable you to consistently address and resolve those “problems.”

• Identify exactly where the core issue lies (people, process, etc.)
• Quickly gather all pertinent facts
• Determine possible solutions, using all available human resources
• Select the optimal resolution, including who is best capable of handling it
• Take immediate action
• Evaluate and monitor to ensure proper resolution

Applying this formula to eliminate challenges will allow you to spend your energy proactively focused on the activties that can drive your business forward.