Stop Second Guessing your Decisions

Leaders make every effort to be decisive. But many times, their well-reasoned decisions are reassessed by bosses and colleagues, or are even ignored. So how to make sure that you stop second guessing your decisions and that your decision stick?

Here are some of the reasons why your decisions don’t stick and hinder your decisions making ability by second guessing already made decisions and indecisiveness:

• Once the decision is made, someone balks that they weren’t a part of the decision and that the discussion should be reopened. Whether they disagree with the decision or maybe not, but they’re upset that they were not involved in the discussion. The chances of such events are high in growing organization, where everyone is given equal decision-making rights.

The fix:

You need to make sure that you involve all the members whose opinion and agreement in the decision matters. Whether it is a junior team member or a senior one, if they are the ones to implement the decisions, they should have their say in the decision-making process.

• People who weren’t sure about their opinion starts to speak up after the decision is already made. Most of these late-breaking contrary opinions come from senior employees. Managers and executives mostly think that they would let the team take the decisions and will kill the ideas only when and if they need to. Their opinions or suggestions are delivered very late when the decision is already made.

The fix:

Ascertain a new rule at the commencement that “Silence means agreement.” If a person does not state his or her opinions in clear words and is silent instead, that would be taken as that person agrees with the decision. No member, however, senior or at the top position should be allowed to remain indecisive once the decision is already made.

• The most insidious of all is when people agreed to some decision but later start second guessing and decide to do something contrary. These decisions are sometimes implemented with or without the knowledge of the members who made the decision.

The fix:

First of all, identify the person who is accountable for execution of the decision and make sure that he agrees with the decision and has a clear idea about the reasons and intent of the decision. Then, set a timeline: a date when the decision will be made, a date till which all the members will be informed about the decision, a date when implementation will be started, and a date at which the execution should be completed. Lastly, maintain periodic checkpoints to make sure that you are heading towards the right way.