How to Make Great Decisions in Your Business

How many decisions does the average human make per day? We’ll give you the answer. It’s 35,000!  35,000 decisions a day on average.

The quality of those decisions has a huge impact on your business and life. What’s a decision that you’re grappling with right now in your business? Some examples could be:

• • • When to hire, who to hire
    • How to invest in your business
    • A new technology
    • A new offering
    • A type of project

Here’s what most people do – they think, “I have a problem. I need to fix it.” Instead, here’s a strategy for increasing the quality of your decisions.

The strategy is called – Desired Outcome.

Let’s use an example about Women’s Business League. About 3 years ago, we needed a new website for WBL. At the time, it would be the largest investment we made in the business. 

The thinking goes – “Our website is clunky. We need a new one so that it won’t be clunky anymore.”  That line of thinking is trying to create a solution from the place of the problem. 

There’s power in creating the solution from the Desired Outcome.

Problem: website is clunky
Desired Outcome: A website that supports our members

• • • is a beautiful representation of the community we’re building
    • tells our story
    • shares our heart to attract the right women in our community

That is a much more powerful place to talk through potential options and solutions. Going to your desired outcome first.

How do we do this? Let’s write down all the possible options for solutions for our problem. 

Check in with yourself. As you look at the options and imagine having them in play, how does it feel in
your body.

• • • Does it feel expansive or constrictive?
    • Does your body physically move in a certain way? Hand on heart, hand on stomach, breath into the options and tune into yourself.

This is the most important step. Sometimes you might not get something right away. That’s okay. Tap into your inner guidance.

So let’s go back to our website example:

• Some of our options included:
  • • Doing the website ourselves
    • Doing parts of it ourselves and part outsourcing
    • Hiring multiple contractors
    • Hiring 1 contractor to do it all

Perfect – we have direction now to the solutions. Now what?

Feedback – Once you know the direction you’re going, research and feedback come into play. Now, we know a lot of you might be thinking, “Don’t you research when you’re looking at options?” Yes, that can be helpful. Most cases, we like to check in with ourselves around the direction and get feedback around the execution.

Filter your Feedback. It is getting input from people who have the desired result. Here are some of our guidelines for feedback:

• • • I’m not available for feedback laced with limits
    • Does the person believe in my vision?
    • Have my best interest at heart?

We picture ourselves as a house and feedback is out in the front garden. We go outside the house to
receive the feedback. We get to decide if we bring it in the house.

We can make great work and life decisions by looking towards our desired outcome, writing down solutions for that desired outcome, determining how we feel in the body when looking at our list, and seeking feedback from trusted individuals.

What is something you’re trying to make a decision about right now? We’d love to hear!